encyclopedia of human geography - شهرسازی آنلاین

ENCYCLOPEDIA OFHUMAN GEOGRAPHY

GERALD R. PITZL

GREENWOOD PRESS

www.shahrsazionline.com

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

HUMANGEOGRAPHY

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

HUMANGEOGRAPHY

GERALD R. PITZL

GREENWOOD PUBLISHINGWestport, Connecticut • London


Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pitzl, Gerald R.Encyclopedia of human geography / Gerald R. Pitzl.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. ).ISBN 0–313–32010–1 (alk. paper)1. Human geography—Encyclopedias. I. Title.

GF4.P58 2004304.2′03—dc21 2002041594

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.

Copyright © 2004 by Gerald R. Pitzl

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may bereproduced, by any process or technique, without theexpress written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002041594ISBN: 0–313–32010–1

First published in 2004

Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.www.greenwood.com

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with thePermanent Paper Standard issued by the NationalInformation Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my wife,for her encouragement and understanding

v

vii

Contents

List of Entries ix

List of Entries by Topic xv

Introduction xxi

The Encyclopedia 1

Selected Bibliography 283

Index 289


Absolute location

Accessibility

Acculturation

Acid rain

Activity space

Age and sex ratios. See Population pyra-mid.

Agglomeration

Agribusiness

Agricultural Revolution

Apartheid

Aquaculture

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)

Arithmetic density. See Population den-sity.

Asian Tigers

Assimilation

Balkanizaion

Basic and nonbasic industries

Behavioral geography

Bid-rent curve

Biotechnology. See Green Revolution.

Blockbusting and redlining

Boundary

Break-of-bulk point

Buffer state and buffer zone

Carrying capacity

Cartogram

Cartography

Census

Central business district

Centrifugal/centripetal forces

Choropleth map

Christaller’s central place theory

City-state

Cold war

Colonialism

Commercial Revolution

Comparative advantage

Concentric zone model

Connectivity

Conservation. See Environmental aware-ness.

Contagion diffusion. See Expansion diffu-sion.

Conurbation

Core-periphery model

Counterurbanization

Crude birthrate

Crude death rate

Cultural convergence

Cultural diffusion. See Diffusion.

Cultural ecology

ix

List of Entries

List of Entries

Cultural geography

Cultural integration

Cultural landscape

Culture hearth

Darwin, Charles (1809–1882)

Davis, William Morris (1850–1934)

Deforestation

Deindustrialization

Demographic transition

Density gradient

Dependency ratio

Dependency theory

Desertification

Devolution

Diffusion

Diffusion barrier

Distance decay

Double-cropping

Doubling time

Economic development

Economic geography

Ecosystem

Ecumene

Edge city

Electoral geography

Enclave and exclave

Entrepôt. See Asian Tigers.

Environmental awareness

Environmental determinism

Environmental perception

Eratosthenes (272–192 B.C.)

Ethnicity

European Union

Exclave. See Enclave and exclave.

Exclusive economic zone

Expansion diffusion

Extensive agriculture

Fall line

Feedlot

Folk and popular culture

Footloose industry

Fordist

Formal (uniform) region. See Region.

Forward thrust capital city

Friction of distance. See Distance decay.

Frontier

Gender

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Gentrification

Geographic information systems

Geography

Geopolitics

Gerrymandering. See Electoral geogra-phy.

Global warming. See Greenhouse effect.

Globalization

Gottmann, Jean. See Megalopolis.

Gravity model

Green belt

Green Revolution

Greenhouse effect

Gross national product/Gross domesticproduct

Growth pole

Hagerstrand, Torsten (1916–)

Heartland theory. See Geopolitics andMackinder, Halford J.

Herodotus (484–ca. 425 B.C.)

Hierarchical diffusion. See Expansiondiffusion.

Highly developed countries. See Core-periphery model.

High-tech corridors

Hinterland

Historical geography

x

List of Entries

HIV/AIDS

Human Development Index

Human geography

Human Poverty Index

Humanistic geography

Hunting and gathering

Hydrologic cycle

Imperialism. See Colonialism.

Industrial inertia

Industrial Revolution

Infant mortality rate

Informal sector

Infrastructure

Intensive agriculture

Intervening opportunity

Irredentism

Isarithmic map

Kyoto Protocol

Landlocked country

Language family

Lesser-developed country. See Core-periphery model.

Lingua franca

Loess

Long lot system

Mackinder, Halford J. (1861–1947)

Malthus, Thomas Robert (1760–1834)

Maquiladoras

Market gardening

Median-line principle

Megalopolis

Melting pot

Mental map

Mercantilism

Metes and bounds system

Metropolitan statistical area

Microclimates

Migration

Monsoon

Multinational corporation. See Transna-tional corporation.

Multinational state

Multiple-nuclei model

Multiplier effect

Nation-state

Natural boundary

Natural hazards

Neocolonialism

Network

New industrial countries

New international division of labor

Nodal (functional) region. See Region.

Nomadic herding

Nongovernmental organization

North American Free Trade Agreement

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

North-South

Optimum population

Organization of Petroleum ExportingCountries

Outsourcing

Overpopulation

Pacific Rim economic region

Paddy rice farming

Pastoralism

Pattern

Periodic market

Personal space. See Territoriality.

Physiological density

Place

Plantation agriculture

xi

List of Entries

Political geography

Pollution

Population density

Population distribution

Population explosion

Population geography

Population growth

Population projection

Population pyramid

Possibilism

Postindustrial economy

Postmodernism

Primary sector

Primate city

Projection

Ptolemy (ca. A.D. 100–ca. 170)

Purchasing power parity

Push and pull factors

Quantitative Revolution

Quaternary sector

Quinary sector

Range. See Christaller’s central placetheory.

Rank-size rule

Rate of natural increase

Ratzel, Friedrich (1844–1904)

Refugees

Region

Regional geography

Relative location

Relict boundary

Relocation diffusion

Renewable resources

Resource

Rimland theory. See Mackinder, HalfordJ.

Ritter, Carl (1779–1859)

Rostow, Walter W. (1916–2003)

Sahel

Salinization

Sauer, Carl (1889–1975)

Scale

Secondary sector

Sector model

Sense of place

Settlement

Shatter belt

Shifting cultivation. See Extensive agri-culture.

Site

Situation

Slash and burn agriculture. See Extensiveagriculture.

Smog

Social geography

Soil

Soil erosion

Space

Spatial interaction

Sprawl. See Urban sprawl.

Squatter settlement

Stimulus diffusion. See Expansion diffu-sion.

Strabo (ca. 64 B.C.–ca. A.D. 25)

Subsistence agriculture

Suburbia

Suitcase farmer

Superimposed boundary

Supranationalism

Sustainable development

Systematic (thematic) geography

Systems theory

Telecommuting

Teleology

Terracing

Territoriality

xii

List of Entries

Tertiary sector

Third World. See Cold war.

Threshold. See Christaller’s central placetheory.

Time-space convergence

Topographic map

Toponym

Topophilia

Total fertility rate

Township and range system

Transhumance

Transnational corporation

Transportation systems

Truck farming. See Market gardening.

United Nations Convention on the Lawof the Sea

Universalizing/ethnic religions

Urban geography

Urban heat island

Urban landscapes

Urban planning

Urban sprawl

Urbanization

Vernacular cultural regions

Vidal de la Blache, Paul (1845–1918)

Von Humboldt, Alexander (1769–1859)

Von Thunen’s land use model

Wallerstein’s world-system analysis

Weber’s least cost theory

Weight-gaining/weight-losing products.See Weber’s least cost theory.

Zero population growth

xiii

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY(GENERAL)

Absolute location

Accessibility



Connectivity



Density gradient

Ecumene



Fall line



Geography

Globalization

Gravity model


Historical geography

Human geography

Hydrologic cycle

Infrastructure

Network

Pattern

Place

Possibilism

Postmodernism


Quantitative Revolution


Region

Regional geography

Relative location


Sauer, Carl (1889–1975)

Settlement

Site

Situation

Social geography

Space

Spatial interaction



Systems theory

Teleology




Von Humboldt, Alexander(1769–1859)

xv

List of Entries by Topic



AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

Agribusiness

Agricultural geography


Aquaculture

Double-cropping


Green Revolution



Long lot system

Market gardening

Nomadic herding

Paddy rice farming

Pastoralism


Shifting cultivation. See Extensive agri-culture.

Slash and burn agriculture. See Extensiveagriculture.

Suitcase farmer

Terracing

Transhumance



BEHAVIORAL GEOGRAPHY

Activity space

Behavioral geography

Contagion diffusion


Diffusion

Diffusion barrier

Distance decay

Environmental perception

Expansion diffusion


Hierarchical diffusion. See Expansiondiffusion.




Sense of place

Stimulus diffusion. See Expansion diffu-sion.

Topophilia

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

Acculturation

Assimilation


Cultural geography


Cultural landscape

Culture hearth

Ethnicity

Folk and popular culture

Gender

Language family

Lingua franca



Vernacular cultural regions

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

Agglomeration

Asian Tigers


Bid-rent curve


Break-of-bulk point



Deindustrialization

Economic development

Economic geography


Footloose industry

xvi


Gross national product/Gross domesticproduct

Growth pole

High-tech corridors


Hinterland

Industrial inertia


Informal sector



Maguiladoras

Mercantilism

Multiplier effect



Outsourcing

Pacific Rim economic region

Periodic market


Primary sector


Quaternary sector

Quinary sector

Renewable resources

Resource


Secondary sector


Telecommuting

Tertiary sector


ENVIRONMENT

Acid rain

Conservation. See Environmental aware-ness.

Cultural ecology

Deforestation

Desertification

Ecosystem

Greenhouse effect

Loess

Microclimates

Monsoon

Natural boundary

Natural hazards

Pollution

Sahel

Salinization

Smog

Soil

Soil erosion

MAPS AND CARTOGRAPHY

Cartogram

Cartography

Choropleth map


Isarithmic map

Mental map

Projection

Scale

Topographic map

NOTABLE INDIVIDUALS INTHE FIELD OF HUMANGEOGRAPHY








xvii









Sauer, Carl (1889–1975)



Von Humboldt, Alexander (1769–1859)




POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

Apartheid

Balkanization

Boundary


Cold war

Colonialism


Dependency theory

Devolution

Electoral geography

Enclave and exclave

European Union

Exclusive economic zone

Frontier


Geopolitics

Gerrymandering. See Electoral geogra-phy.

Heartland theory


Irredentism

Kyoto Protocol

Landlocked country




Multinational corporation. See Transna-tional corporation.

Multinational state

Nation-state

Neocolonialism



Organization of Petroleum ExportingCountries

Political geography

Refugees

Relict boundary

Rimland theory. See Mackinder, HalfordJ. (1861–1947)

Shatter belt

Squatter settlement

Superimposed boundary

Supranationalism

Territoriality

Third World. See Cold war.

Toponym



United Nations Convention on the Lawof the Sea


POPULATION GEOGRAPHY

Age and sex ratios. See Population pyra-mid.

Arithmetic density. See Population den-sity.

Carrying capacity

Census

Crude birthrate

Crude death rate


Dependency ratio

xviii


Doubling time

HIV/AIDS


Human Poverty Index



Melting pot

Migration

Optimum population

Overpopulation


Population density




Population growth


Population pyramid




URBAN GEOGRAPHY

Blockbusting and redlining



City-state


Conurbation

Counterurbanization

Edge city


Gentrification


Green belt

Megalopolis




Primate city

Range

Rank-size rule

Sector model


Suburbia

Urban geography

Urban heat island

Urban landscapes

Urban sprawl

Urbanization

xix

Introduction

Human geography is a broad and fascinating field within the larger discipline ofgeography. Simply stated, human geography considers all aspects of geographynot covered by physical geography except for the more technically based areas,such as cartography and geographic information systems. However, humangeography uses maps and other graphics produced in these two areas in researchand analysis and incorporates themes in physical geography when doing so willadvance the work under way.

The main focus of human geography is, of course, the presence and activi-ties of humans. Themes within human geography reflect a number of perspec-tives: culture, population, economic activity, spatial behavior, political activity,urbanization, perception of place, and the many and varied ways in whichhumans interact with one another and with their environment. Studying thedynamic content of human geography is like journeying into the minds of otherculture groups, being present as socioeconomic development unfolds in aremote African nation, or cruising the speed-of-light communications systemsthat make the global economy hum. Human geography is about human activ-ity and it is, therefore, an exciting intellectual and emotional engagement.

Beginning with absolute location and ending with zero population growth(ZPG), this encyclopedia includes 266 entries covering pertinent models, con-cepts, and theories used in human geography. In addition, many of the mostprominent personalities associated with geography throughout history areintroduced. For example, the eminent nineteenth-century scientist CharlesDarwin was a member of Britain’s esteemed Royal Geographical Society. TheGreek scholar Herodotus, who has been called the father of both history andethnography, wrote extensively about the people and places he visited. Thefield of geography can claim him as well, because of the profound work he didin describing, and theorizing about, the earth and its physical and human ele-ments.

Each of the entries is followed by at least two suggested readings (book, arti-cle, or stable Web site) that may be referred to for additional information.

xxi

Some entries contain cross-references, which are identified in bold. The entrysection is followed by a selected bibliography, comprising current books withinthe field. Finally, an appendix lists all the entries grouped by topics withinhuman geography.

The entries in the Encyclopedia of Human Geography represent only the tip ofthe iceberg, so to speak, in this expansive and exciting field of study. There arehundreds of prominent personalities who wear the mantle of “geographer,” andthere are thousands of ideas and concepts awaiting those who would choose togo further in their exploration of human geography. It is hoped that this ency-clopedia will be helpful to the student as a companion to an Advanced Place-ment or college textbook, to the general user who simply wants information onaspects of human geography, or to the researcher who wishes to confirm theunderstanding of a particular topic.

Introduction

xxii

A

1

Absolute location. The concept of location identifies one of the basic proper-ties of geography: all places are located on the surface of the earth, and their lo-cations can be unambiguously identified using a number of spatial referencesystems. Commonly, the spatial reference system is latitude and longitude. Forexample, Hanoi, Vietnam, is located at 21 degrees north latitude and 106degrees east longitude. There can be no confusion about this form of spatialspecification: it is an unambiguous reference to Hanoi’s location within thelatitude-longitude system. The absolute location of Hanoi has been determined.There are other spatial systems that can be used to find absolute location.

Geography is a discipline that deals with all forms of interaction, movement,and spatial variation on the earth’s surface. Because it is a spatial discipline, theneed for a precise and unambiguous method to pinpoint a place is essential.China’s landing on Mischief Reef in the South China Sea in February 1995 drewworldwide attention. If one were not intimately familiar with the location ofMischief Reef, a glance at an atlas would reveal its absolute location to be 10 de-grees latitude and 116 degrees east longitude. Further reading of the map wouldshow Mischief Reef to be one of a number of tiny landmasses in the Spratly Is-lands. Once absolute location is found, a geographer can use another powerfulconcept to gain greater understanding of the significance of a place. It is oftenstated that absolute location alone is of limited importance; this is certainly truein the case of Mischief Reef. In fact, the true importance of the place lies in itsproximity to countries that surround it. If we refer to Mischief Reef, or any otherplace, in relation to surrounding places, we have invoked the powerful geograph-ical concept of relative location. The geographer’s starting point in using relativelocation analysis, however, must proceed from a consideration of absolute loca-tion.


The examples of absolute location given thus far have been of point form.That is, the precise intersection of a set of latitude and longitude lines, whichdescribes a point with no real areal dimension. Clearly, Hanoi and MischiefReef have area. The validity of the absolute location is, nonetheless, not com-promised. Both places are unambiguously located. But what about specifyingthe absolute location of a place that has an extensive area? For example, Col-orado’s absolute location would require the designation of the latitude and lon-gitude coordinates for all four of its corners and the specification that the statecomprises the area of the polygon enclosed by these points. Clearly, an attemptto use this technique to state the absolute location of an administrative areawith irregular boundaries, such as Chile or Japan, would be difficult. Yet theprinciple is valid; cadastral maps, those that clearly identify the dimensionsand areal extent of land for legal purposes such as ownership and transfer oftitle, are examples of absolute location.

Suggested Readings: George J. Demko, Why in the World: Adventures in Geography, New York:Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1992; Tim F. Wood, “Thinking in Geography,” Geography, vol. 72(1987).

Accessibility. Geography is a spatial discipline concerned not only with the lo-cation of people and places but also, more important, with the manner inwhich these entities interact. The concept of connectivity considers the manypathways (highways, air routes, sea-lanes, e-mail, fax, etc.) that allow interac-tion between distant points. Accessibility is the concept that determines theefficiency of these pathways. The advent of the telephone dramatically in-creased the accessibility of users. In recent years, cellular phones further in-creased this accessibility. No longer is it necessary to be near a permanentlyinstalled telephone; a person can be reached virtually anywhere within the ser-vice area of the cellular phone. However, cellular circuits can become over-loaded at times, and when this occurs, the message “all lines are busy; please tryagain later” signals that accessibility through this medium is temporarily di-minished.

Traveling by automobile from the suburbs of any large city to the centralbusiness district (CBD) reflects variable accessibility, depending on the timeof day. To drive this route during rush hour in the morning would take longerthan it would at 8 P.M., for instance. Inclement weather can affect accessibility.Blizzards and severe rainstorms will slow highway traffic, and if a storm is suffi-ciently severe, airports may be closed. Here, again, accessibility is diminishedfor a period of time.

Accessibility may be considered in historical context. During the westwardmovement in the United States, a journey from New York to the Pacific Coastcould take months. By contrast, a passenger jet can leave La Guardia airport inNew York City and arrive in San Francisco, for instance, in a matter of hours.Improvements in transportation technology “bring places closer together,” asthe saying goes.

Accessibility

2

The concept of accessibility in geographical studies has traditionally dealtwith determining the efficiency of transportation and communication systems.In recent years, accessibility has also been applied in the social realm. For ex-ample, during the era of apartheid in South Africa, black South Africans wereeffectively excluded from access to sectors of the economy and social settingsexclusive to whites.

Suggested Readings: Brian Goodall, The Facts on File Dictionary of Human Geography, NewYork: Facts on File, 1987; Ali Rogers et al., The Student’s Companion to Geography, Cambridge,Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1992.

Acculturation. Changes in value systems, attitudes, customs, language, andother cultural traits brought about by the contact of dissimilar culturegroups make up the process of acculturation. Contact by one culture withanother invariably implies cultural diffusion in its various forms, the move-ment of one or more culture groups into the area of another. In most cases,the weaker culture group will adopt a significant array of cultural attributesfrom the dominant group. It is not uncommon, however, for dominantgroups to adopt some cultural traits through the interaction. For example,when the Spanish and the Portuguese occupied regions in Latin America,these dominant groups established towns, introduced their religion, and al-tered the agricultural systems. In turn, the European occupiers adopted cer-tain aspects of architecture, clothing forms, and other cultural attributesfrom the indigenous culture groups. Another example of acculturation canbe found in the southwestern United States, where ancient architecturalstyles reflect influences from Spain, Morocco, and various American Indiangroups in the region.

In the nineteenth century, following the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japanadopted Western technology and began the development of a global economicsystem after the European model, an unprecedented action at that time by anAsian nation. Following World War II, during the U.S. occupation of Japan,many Japanese adopted American dress styles, diets, and sports, especially base-ball and golf. In turn, the United States adopted, in some measure, certainJapanese foods and ways of thinking. The Japanese adoption of Western foods(milk and meat in particular) has resulted in a gain in the average physicalheight of the Japanese. These dietary changes have also brought on a higher in-cidence of certain stomach cancers.

Acculturation usually requires considerable time to be effected; it is not anovernight process. Also, acculturation may be a painful process. If the weakerculture group has been conquered, then the process of acculturation may wellbe forced and unpleasant.

The second period of colonialism, beginning in the nineteenth century, re-sulted in an abundant number of examples of acculturation. The French en-couraged acculturation in their North African colonies with the aim of movingthe process toward complete assimilation.

Acculturation

3

Acculturation in the United States is, of course, related to the notion of themelting pot, the idea that any and all culture groups migrating to the UnitedStates would undergo a complete and unequivocal “Americanization.” Thisoutcome has never been realized, and in recent decades there has been an in-crease in ethnic identity and the desire of many minority groups to retain moreof their own cultural traits. Conflict between official governmental aims andthe persistence of ethnic identity has surfaced in attempts to make English theofficial language in some states. Those in favor of this move suggest that lan-guage is a key component in cultural makeup and that to avoid making Englishthe official language undermines the process of acculturation. Those againstthis stance counter that one’s native language is essential to retaining ethnicidentity and that English can be learned more slowly and as needed. This is asignificant controversy, because census results show that 15 percent of Ameri-can families report that a language other than English is routinely spoken intheir homes. See also Ethnicity.

Suggested Readings: James P. Allen and Eugene Tumer, We the People: An Atlas of America’s

Ethnic Diversity, New York: Macmillan, 1988; Stanley Lieberson and Mary C. Waters, From

Many Strands: Ethnic and Racial Groupings in Contemporary America, Census Monograph Series,New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1988.

Acid rain. Areas of high population density and heavy industrial productionare the sources of acid rain, a general term covering rainfall that is laden withpollutants. The regions of highest generation of the materials found in acidrain are the Midwest in the United States and the area in Europe of extensiveindustrial production in eastern Germany. Acid rain forms from the burning offossil fuels, especially coal, and the release of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxideinto the atmosphere. These materials are sent aloft and picked up by the pre-vailing winds and sent hundreds of kilometers into adjacent regions. Whenthese materials mix with water in the atmosphere, a chemical reaction takesplace and the new material is deposited as acid rain. In the case of sulfur diox-ide (SO2), the chemical reaction is straightforward: SO2 (sulfur dioxide) � O(oxygen) � H2O (water) → H2SO4 (weak sulfuric acid). When acid rain fallsto earth, it can, over time, cause extensive damage to forests, lakes, soil, andeven buildings.

Lake drainage has been extensive in the eastern United States and easternCanada. Over 20 percent of the lakes in eastern Canada have high levels oftoxins attributed to acid rain. Ironically, the source region for the acid rain thatplagues the eastern United States and eastern Canada is the American Mid-west, where heavy industry and coal-fired power plants emit the pollutants.This is a prime example of a negative environmental outcome of spatial inter-action.

Levels of acid rain are at their highest in regions of eastern Europe. Largeparts of the Bohemian Forest in the Czech Republic have been severely dam-aged. Consequent loss of forest and vegetative cover has resulted in higher in-

Acid rain

4

cidence of flooding as rainwater cascades down barren slopes, swelling riversbeyond their capacity.

The Black Triangle in central and eastern Europe, comprising portions ofGermany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia has, without doubt, themost extreme acid rain damage. Forests, lakes, and soil have been severely af-fected, and respiratory problems in humans are exceptionally high. People liv-ing within the Black Triangle have a life expectancy 10 years lower than that oftheir parents.

Buildings and monuments have also suffered from the effects of acid rain.The Acropolis in Greece, the Taj Mahal in India, and Cleopatra’s Needle inEngland all show signs of deterioration from acid rain. Acid rain is a classic ex-ample of severe environmental degradation.

Suggested Readings: David Waugh, Geography: An Integrated Approach, London: ThomasNelson and Sons, 1990; Alan Wellburn, Air Pollution and Acid Rain, 2nd ed., Reading, Mass.:Addison, Wesley, Longman, 1994.

Activity space. Geographers use the term activity space to identify the areal ex-tent of a person’s regularly visited places during a day. The activity space of anindividual is an aspect of human spatial behavior, a key theme in geography.The daily set of activities and the space in which they occur will vary greatly,depending on a number of factors. For instance, the activity space of a pre-school child will be limited to perhaps a few rooms in the home and a sojourninto an enclosed yard. As the child enters the school-age years, significantchanges will occur in the areal extent of the activity space. The day may beginwith a ride on a school bus, followed by several hours of varying activitieswithin the school (class time, exercise, lunch, more classes, and assemblies) be-fore the return trip home.

The extent of activity space for an adult engaged in the work world may bevery extensive. It is quite common for a worker to commute as far as 100 milesby automobile or train on a daily basis. Also, hundreds of individuals traveldaily, or at least several times a week, by air between the key metropolitan areasof New York, Boston, and Washington. The activity space for most people inthe agricultural regions of developing countries is minuscule by comparison.Regardless of societal setting, the activity space of older people may be con-stricted because of physical infirmity or limited access to transportation.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Swedish geographer Torsten Hagerstrand pio-neered the notion of “time geography,” providing a technique to diagram andassign duration and direction to each event and movement within an activityspace. Also around that time, Alan Pred used activity space analysis in a studyof the daily visits and movements of a Boston mercantilist in the nineteenthcentury. Pred’s study included a detailed map of the area in which the mercan-tilist carried out his daily activities. Pred contended that the study of activityspaces of multiple businessmen in the same area of Boston would be helpful ingaining insights into how the mercantilist operated.

Activity space

5

Suggested Readings: Paul Cloke et al., Approaching Human Geography, New York: GuilfordPress, 1991; Brian Goodall, The Facts on File Dictionary of Human Geography, New York: Facts onFile, 1987.

Age and sex ratios. See Population pyramid.

Agglomeration. People and activities tend to concentrate in a location toshare facilities and services for mutual benefit. The localization of activitiesand the centralization of business and manufacturing activities are identified asagglomeration. Clustering of people and activities in this manner maximizesthe opportunities for sharing facilities and services and for the easy transfer ofcommodities, components in manufacturing processes, information of mutualinterest and importance, and labor supply.

The advantage of agglomeration to manufacturing activities is especially im-portant in the category of transportation costs. An industry requiring a regularsupply of components for its production processes will minimize transport coststo the greatest extent possible. Thus, suppliers of components are at an eco-nomic advantage to locate close to the major firm. The importance of locatingindustrial activities in order to minimize transport costs was strongly advocatedearly in the twentieth century by the economist Alfred Weber, who developedWeber’s least cost theory.

One of the best examples of agglomeration in a single industry is automo-bile manufacturing in the United States. Throughout the twentieth century,Detroit, Michigan, remained the prominent production center for automo-biles. The major manufacturers (Ford, Chrysler, General Motors) and othersclustered together in this metropolitan area. In addition, thousands of suppli-ers of components needed in automobile assembly located in or near Detroitto ensure the most efficient and low-cost transfer of components to the assem-bly points in Detroit. In recent years, the degree of concentration exhibited byDetroit during the heyday of automobile production has decreased. However,the Detroit metropolitan area remains the single most important automobile-manufacturing center in the United States. Another example of agglomera-tion in manufacturing is the concentration of armament-producing firms inEssen, Germany.

Retail firms, as well, tend to agglomerate, realizing that shoppers will takeadvantage of the close proximity of several competing stores within walkingdistance in order to compare products and prices. In this sense, the modernshopping mall with many retailers and food vendors under one roof is quintes-sential agglomeration.

The location of office complexes within metropolitan areas is another exampleof agglomeration. It is still true that a great deal of business is conducted face toface. The high-rise skyscrapers found in virtually every well-developed metropoli-tan center best exemplify the recognized advantage of placing office personnel inthe closest possible proximity to others with whom they do business.

Age and sex ratios

6

The high-technology industry, which emerged with dramatic speed in thelate twentieth century, was agglomerated from the beginning. Silicon Valley,near San Jose, California; Route 128 around Boston; and the Research Trianglein Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, represent only a few of the manyclusters of high-technology industries in the United States. Two of the majorreasons for the localization of firms in this industry are (1) proximity to majorresearch universities, and (2) the availability of a trained labor force.

Concentration and centralization of industrial and manufacturing activitiescreates spatial inequities regionally and globally. These points of intense pro-duction, known as growth poles, become accumulators of immense wealth andtend to increase economic disadvantages in peripheral locations.

Suggested Readings: Keith Chapman and David Walker, Industrial Location, Cambridge,Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1991; H. P. Watts, Industrial Geography, New York: Longman Scientificand Technical/Wiley, 1987.

Agribusiness. Agribusiness generally means the industry that includes theoperation of farms, farm equipment, and farm commodities. Monumentalchanges have occurred in agriculture since the 1950s. New technology has cre-ated advanced agricultural implements, more-effective chemical additives, andhybrid crops engineered to produce higher yields in a shorter growing time. Amodern-day agricultural revolution has been underway for more than 50 years,and it will likely continue.

The farm scene in North America and Europe is marked by increased out-put of crops per unit area, decreasing farm numbers and increasing farm size,and great specialization in agricultural products. All of these technological in-puts, combined with vastly improved surface transportation systems and food-storage facilities, have taken agriculture far beyond the days of the isolatedfamily farm serving only its immediate area. Large-scale agriculture systemsexhibit extraordinary areal range, and the industry’s accessibility to distantmarkets is steadily increasing.

Agribusiness identifies the vast and dynamic interaction of the farm sectorwith other technological and business sectors. Briefly, this intricate system in-cludes all aspects of agriculture: implements and machinery; seeds; chemicals;modern farm-management practices; the farms themselves; the crops and ani-mal products that are sent to food-processing plants; and the vast delivery andmarketing organizations that produce, package, and distribute the final prod-ucts. Agribusiness is truly big business. Although only 2 percent of both theU.S. and Canadian workforce is directly involved in the growing of food prod-ucts, 20 percent of the workforce is engaged throughout the myriad of activitiesin the agribusiness complex.

The agribusiness system is highly capital intensive and, consequently, it isincreasingly costly for farmers to take part in this sophisticated system. Thou-sands of small farms, unable to compete with the large, specialized, and more fi-nancially sound farms, have been forced out of business. Although most farms

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are still in private hands, other operations in the agribusiness system are basedin large corporations.

Suggested Readings: David B. Grigg, An Introduction to Agricultural Geography, 2nd ed., NewYork: Routledge, 1995; Ingolph Vogeler, The Myth of the Family Farm: Agribusiness Dominance of

United States Agriculture, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1981.

Agricultural Revolution. The term Agricultural Revolution is most frequentlyassociated with pronounced changes and improvements in agriculture in En-gland before and during the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth cen-tury. This revolution has been variously identified as beginning as early as theend of the Middle Ages and extending into the nineteenth century. The Agri-cultural Revolution both acted as a stimulus to the Industrial Revolution andbenefited from a number of its inventions, including advanced agricultural ma-chinery to replace human and animal labor. New approaches to crop rotation;the elimination of the open-field system; the awarding of land to private own-ers through the Enclosure Acts (such as the Statute of Merton, passed in 1235);the use of fences, walls, and other boundary identifiers; and the expansion ofarable land were key factors in this important era. Cities were growing as theIndustrial Revolution continued its phenomenal growth, and the agriculturalsector was expanding in order to provide necessary food for a growing popula-tion.

The name Agricultural Revolution has also been applied to two other peri-ods in human history. The first period of agricultural advancement and inno-vation occurred between 12,000 and 14,000 years ago, and the process mostlikely continued for several thousand years over a number of regions. The mostsignificant innovation was the practice of cultivating plants in place ratherthan migrating to find edible plants in the wild. Cultivation of roots and seedsin place allowed for the subsequent development of a sedentary form of life andpermanent settlements. In time, the first significant moves toward urbanizationand new governmental forms began to evolve. With the amount of food in-creasing, the first recognizable population explosion occurred.

Another Agricultural Revolution began in earnest in the 1950s. Continuedimprovements in seed and chemical additives combined with advanced agri-cultural machinery and computer-based farm management practices continueto bring higher crop yields with less human labor. Remarkable transformationshave taken place in the farm section as the era of the traditional family farmgives way to corporate-structured agribusiness enterprises. Advances in agri-culture have been most pronounced in the developed countries, but an impor-tant exception is the Green Revolution, which brought great increases ingrain production to the countries of South Asia.

Suggested Readings: William H. Bender, “How Much Food Will We Need in the 21st Cen-tury?” Environment, vol. 39 (1997); I. Seidl and C. A. Tisdell, “Carrying Capacity Reconsidered:From Malthus’ Population Theory to Culture Carrying Capacity,” Ecological Economics, vol. 31(1999).


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Apartheid. Apartheid, which means “apartness,” was an official policy inSouth Africa from 1948 until its demise in 1991. It stipulated the strict separa-tion of the nation’s four racial groups: whites, Asians, “colored” (people whowere racially mixed), and black. Each group had separate legal status. Theapartheid policy was enacted at a time when other African countries weregaining independence from colonial-era rulers and blacks were assuming lead-ership positions. The National Party in South Africa, controlled by whiteSouth Africans, known as Afrikaners, took the opposite position and enacted apolicy that was unambiguously white supremacist.

Blacks were discriminated against in public transportation, theaters, parks,education, and the workplace. Within the cities of South Africa, particularareas were designated for residential, economic, and social activities strictlyalong racial lines. The main impetus for the apartheid policy was to ensurewhite supremacy and to control the black population, which represented 75percent of the people in South Africa.

The official position of the government of South Africa was that separationwould ensure that whites would not be in a position to dominate blacks. Inorder to further this position, the government established 10 “homeland” areasdesignated for occupation by the leading black national groups. The ultimateaim of the government was for these homelands to become independent sover-eign states. It was clear from the beginning, however, that the homelands didnot have the necessary economic, social, and political structures to ever be-come separate countries. The homelands were located in the poorest areas ofSouth Africa and those least accessible to points of employment in cities out-side the homelands.

The apartheid system was by its very nature repressive to blacks in SouthAfrica. As such, the government was under pressure to end the policy from thebeginning of apartheid through the 1980s. In 1977, the United States adoptedthe Sullivan Principles in an effort to increase opportunities for black Africans.By doing so, the United States hoped to influence South Africa to set aside itsapartheid policy. By 1989, a number of sanctions had been placed on SouthAfrica. Even neighboring African countries, including Zimbabwe, were ex-pressing their opposition to South Africa’s apartheid policy. However, Zim-babwe’s response was tempered somewhat, because it relied on South Africa’sports for its import and export activity.

The United States also enacted sanctions to eliminate bank loans to SouthAfrica, discontinue the purchase of Krugerrands (the South African currency),and to discourage the purchase of stocks from companies that did business inSouth Africa.

Throughout the early 1990s, internal rebellion by blacks was frequent andvocal. Finally, in 1991, South African president Frederick W. DeKlerk repealedall legislation authorizing apartheid. During the previous year, DeKlerk had re-leased Nelson Mandela, African National Congress leader, who had been in

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prison for 26 years. Mandela eventually was elected president of South Africa.Apartheid laws are gone, but the effects of this policy will be felt in SouthAfrica for years to come.

Suggested Readings: Anthony Lemon, ed., The Geography of Change in South Africa, Chich-ester, England: Wiley, 1995; Ali Mazrui, The Africans: A Triple Heritage, Boston: Little, Brown,1986.

Aquaculture. Aquaculture, the practice of raising and harvesting fish andother water produce, has been practiced for thousands of years, especially inAsia. Breeding of some fish has occurred for more than 200 years. In recentyears, however, a more sophisticated form of aquaculture is being conducted inmany regions of the world. Aquaculturists are increasing the production of an-imal protein and some edible plants in controlled and isolated environments inorder to increase yields. Aquaculture is an important response to continuallyexpanding food needs in the world. Lakes, ponds, canals, and coastal bays arethe settings for this efficient and low-cost method of producing edible marinelife. Fish grow more rapidly in these controlled situations, where food sourcesare regular and predators are not a concern.

Fish production globally comes from three primary sources: inland lakes andrivers, comprising about 7 percent of total production; marine sources, by farthe greatest contributor, at 78 percent; and aquaculture from both inland andmarine containments, totaling 15 percent. The variety of fish producedthrough aquaculture is impressive. Trout hatcheries are especially abundant;shrimp breeding is expanding along coastal locations; and extensive crayfish,catfish, and oyster operations are found especially in the southeastern UnitedStates.

Recently, large-scale, mechanized aquaculture “farms” have been developed.These giant operations are similar in scale and financial structure to agribusi-ness concerns found in the farming sector. It is not surprising to see the scale ofoperation increase in aquaculture. First, world food demand continues to in-crease. Second, overfishing in ocean waters is fast depleting once-abundantschools of fish, and yields are decreasing. Third, the potential for growth inaquaculture is very high as the market for seafood continues to expand. Re-gional reliance on fish in diets varies a great deal, and only about 2 percent ofall food consumed globally comes from that source. The coastal regions of Asiaare the clear leaders in fish consumption, and their production of this productthrough aquaculture is high. Production of shellfish through aquaculture alongthe coastal zone from India through Southeast Asia to China and Japan ac-counts for 80 percent of the world’s total.

Suggested Readings: Tom Dyson, Population and Food: Global Trends and Future Prospects,

New York: Routledge, 1996; Hal Kane, “Growing Fish in Fields,” World Watch, vol. 6 (1993).

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.). Student of the great Greek philosopher Plato,teacher of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, and one of the giants inGreek thought, Aristotle conceived of the world as striving toward a state of

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perfection. His was a teleological view, one based on the belief that the uni-verse was planned by a higher power and was being constructed as time passedaccording to a grand plan. His view on this matter differed from that of Plato,his schoolmaster, who contended that the world was degrading from perfec-tion.

Aristotle is important in early geography because he dealt with the earthand its components. He taught that the best way to develop and test a theorywas through direct observation. In proposing this approach, Aristotle formallyintroduced the inductive procedure of investigation: proceed from the de-tailed and directly observable phenomena toward higher-level generalizationand theory. Plato, taking the opposite approach, proposed beginning an analy-sis with a theory derived from deduction and then working toward the partic-ular.

Aristotle agreed with Plato that the earth was spherical. Aristotle’s conclu-sion in this regard reflected his strong belief in direct observation. He notedthe curved surface of the shadow that covered the moon during an eclipse. Ar-istotle also determined that the altitude above the horizon for stars would in-crease as the observer moved north. If the earth were flat, no change wouldoccur.

Aristotle was incorrect about one important feature of the earth: he con-tended that the earth was stationary in the universe and that all other celestialbodies revolved around it. This idea was taken up by Ptolemy (ca. A.D. 100–ca. 170) and persisted as a false theory until Copernicus (1473–1543) correctlyproposed a sun-centered solar system and Galileo (1564–1642) proved the cor-rectness of Copernican ideas.

Aristotle concurred with the earlier prominent scholar, Empedocles(490–430 B.C.), who stated that all matter was composed of four basic sub-stances: air, fire, earth, and water. Aristotle added a fifth substance, the“aether,” which he contended did not occur on earth but made up the celestialbodies. Although these early notions were later refuted, Aristotle’s conclusionthat the basic substances combined and modified to create new matter impliedthe important principle of process, or change over time. Aristotle used onlylogic to support his theories. He gave no thought to setting up controlled ex-periments. This is surprising, given his strong position on direct observation toboth build and test theories.

Aristotle believed in the early notions of the latitudinal zonation of theearth. In this model, the zone nearest the equator was too hot for human occu-pancy and was named the Torrid Zone. Seafarers carefully avoided sailing toofar south toward the equator for fear that they would literally burn up from theheat of the sun. To the north of the inhabited region of the earth was the FrigidZone, again uninhabitable because of severely low temperatures. Betweenthem was the ecumene, or temperate zone, the inhabitable region. Aristotlealso speculated that a southern temperate zone existed but that it was inacces-sible because of the Torrid Zone.

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This zonal climatic theory persisted for centuries. In the thirteenth cen-tury A.D., the German scholar Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) took Aris-totle’s idea about the Torrid Zone and suggested that if humans entered it,their skin would turn black. He then further postulated that following amove back to the temperate zone, the skin would return to its original lightcolor. The climatic zone theory is an early example of environmental deter-minism.

Suggested Readings: George Kish, A Source Book in Geography, Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 1978; Geoffrey J. Martin and Preston E. James, All Possible Worlds: A History of

Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Arithmetic density. See Population density.

Asian Tigers. Asian Tigers refers to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Sin-gapore, each of which made dramatic advances in economic growth in the latetwentieth century. The amazing success of Japan, rising from its defeat afterWorld War II to its preeminent position as a leading global economic poweronly a few decades later, was the model for the success of the Asian Tigers. Allfour of these states benefited from highly skilled and educated workforces, de-pended on export sales of primarily high-value-added products, and could boastof high-level entrepreneurial leadership. The four original Tigers are now, in away, reduced to three with the return, in 1997, of Hong Kong to Chinese con-trol. The ultimate fate of Taiwan is in doubt; China considers Taiwan to be oneof its provinces and in time it may well revert to China’s control. Both SouthKorea and Taiwan were occupied by Japan early in the twentieth century andwere released following the end of World War II.

South Korea was forced to develop an industrial base following the divisionof the Korean Peninsula at the 38th parallel. This rather arbitrary splitting ofthe country left virtually all industry in the north, leaving the south with themajor agricultural region. By the 1970s, with heavy inputs of aid from theUnited States, South Korea was on the road to becoming an industrial powerin East Asia. Iron and steel, automobiles, and shipbuilding became well estab-lished in burgeoning urban centers. Only two decades earlier, South Korea hadprimarily an agriculturally based economy. Textile manufacturing expandedthroughout the growth period, and in the 1990s, South Korea was developing ahigh-technology industry.

Taiwan became the home of the Kuomintang government following itsouster from the Chinese mainland in 1949. As China followed Mao TseTung—who emerged as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in1935—into the era of communism, Taiwan immediately moved toward the es-tablishment of an industrial base. The island had a well-established and com-mercially productive agricultural sector, which proved to be an importanteconomic stimulus to the newly developing industrial thrust. Taiwan began todevelop high-technology industries in the 1980s and l990s.

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Hong Kong, a British colony for 99 years until its return to China in 1997, isone of the world’s most important trading centers. Long famous for its textileand clothing businesses, Hong Kong has expanded its economic base to includethe manufacture of electronics, a global financial sector, and a thriving tourismindustry. Under the Basic Law, established following Hong Kong’s return toChinese control, the city is allowed to operate as a free-trade center until 2047.Some experts doubt whether the Chinese leadership will allow Hong Kong toretain this status for that length of time, and Hong Kong’s long-term status inChina is unclear.

Singapore, like Hong Kong, is a city-state. Its strategic location astride theMalacca Strait has guaranteed its primacy as a world-class import-export centerfor many years. Singapore is an established and vibrant trading center and inrecent years has begun the manufacture of high-technology equipment andcomputer parts. Both Hong Kong and Singapore are considered entrepôt states,or intermediary centers of trade, because of their roles at intermediary pointsfacilitating trade between foreign countries.

All four of the Asian Tigers have established a clear global reach. AlthoughHong Kong’s future is somewhat in doubt and that of Taiwan is similarly un-clear, it is true that all four, along with Japan and China—as members of thePacific Rim economic region—are the key economic centers of East Asia.

Suggested Readings: Barbara Weightman, Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East, and

Southeast Asia, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002; World Bank, The East Asian Miracle, NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Assimilation. The concept of assimilation addresses the theoretical com-pletion of the acculturation process. Two forms of assimilation have beenidentified: (1) cultural or behavioral assimilation, which is essentially the ac-culturation part of the process; and (2) structural assimilation, the acceptanceby the entering culture of the value system of the host group, the uniting of theethnic aspects of the two groups, and the incorporation of the new groupwithin the occupational structure of the host. Two of the important indicatorsof the degree to which assimilation has progressed are rates of intermarriageand the degree of areal segregation of new groups, especially as evidenced inurban areas.

It is clear that the assimilation process is an extension of acculturation. Andlike acculturation, the process will show varying degrees of completion. Eventhe early European immigrants to the United States have retained particularcultural traits decades after entering the country and experiencing the processleading to assimilation. The presence of Irish restaurants, Italian markets, andGerman social clubs are examples of original cultural attributes expressed longafter the essential aspects of assimilation have been completed.

During the period of colonialism that followed the discovery of the WesternHemisphere by Europeans in 1492, a form of selective assimilation was prac-ticed. For example, the Portuguese developed a type of social hierarchy; those

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in their colonies choosing to attain Portuguese citizenship were allowed to as-similate, whereas those not in that category were relegated to a lesser social sta-tus and lower-level jobs.

The completion of a process of assimilation may reverse. As assimilated cul-ture group members gain better jobs and better social situations, cultural differ-ences may again be more apparent. When a reversal of the assimilation processoccurs, the situation may well become violent. Examples of reversals includethe demands, demonstrations, and forceful actions by several nationalities fol-lowing the demise of the Soviet Union in 1989. Movements for independencestarted throughout the region.

Reversals may occur through significant changes in the location of places ofemployment. For example, when the automobile production facilities in De-troit, Michigan, were moved to the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s, workers inthe city, most of whom were African American, found that their accessibilityto the new plants was taken away. In this case, an important aspect of structuralassimilation, incorporation within the work setting of the host, was virtuallyeliminated. When assimilation does not occur, or is seriously reversed, the host(country, metropolitan area, neighborhood) may experience serious problems.

Suggested Readings: James P. Allen and Eugene Turner, “Spatial Patterns of Immigrant As-similation,” Professional Geographer, vol. 48 (1996); Alejandro Portes and Ruben J. Rumbaut,Immigrant America, 2nd ed., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

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B

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Balkanization. Balkanization is the division of a region or country into smalleradministrative units, usually along ethnic lines. The term derives from a regionin southern Europe originally composed of five countries—Albania, Bulgaria,Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia—created by the Allied powers followingWorld War I from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.The five countries became known collectively as the Balkans (or BalkanStates), the name of a regional mountain range and peninsula. The regioncomprising the old empires had a long-standing history of strife among adher-ents of different religions, who came into close contact with one another.Christians and Muslims competed, as did Catholics and Orthodox groups andSerbs and Kosovars.

The Balkans held together through most of the remaining decades of thetwentieth century. However, in the early 1990s, following the demise of theSoviet Union, several regional groups within Yugoslavia broke away, and fournew countries were formed: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia,and Slovenia. Once the breakup took place, ethnic strife quickly followed, asconflict raged over boundary disputes among the new countries. Conflict oc-curred again in the late 1990s in Kosovo between Serbs and Kosovars, whoare ethnic Albanian Muslims. Strife and tension continued into the twenty-first century. The region experienced balkanization twice in the twentiethcentury.

Balkanization has also occurred in Africa. In some ways, the apartheid pol-icy of creating 10 new homelands to isolate the leading black cultural groups inSouth Africa was a form of balkanization. However, the Nigerian experience inthis regard is especially pertinent. Nigeria was a British colony until it achieved

independence in 1960. At that time, the country had three major regions andan extremely diverse population comprising 300 ethnic groups. Nigeria is also amajor producer of petroleum, and competition among many of the ethnicgroups for a share in oil revenues created tensions throughout the country.Nigeria experienced considerable ethnic strife and a major civil war that killedmillions in the 1960s. Balkanization occurred over the years from 1967 through1991 in four restructuring phases, which resulted in the eventual creation of 30district states. Along with this tenfold increase in administrative units hascome regional demands for autonomy and the polarization of ethnic tensions.Once deemed to be the country in Africa with the greatest promise for futuresuccess, Nigeria today faces an uncertain future.

Suggested Readings: David Hooson, Geography and National Identity, London: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 1994; Alan Best and Harm de Blij, African Survey, New York: John Wiley & Sons,1977.

Basic and nonbasic industries. The economic base of an urban area includesits basic industries, those providing goods and services to areas outside its cen-ter, and its nonbasic industries—activities directed to maintaining the internalhealth and viability of the area, such as housing, medical and dental services,schools, shopping, entertainment, and so forth. The ratio between the twogives an indication (although never completely accurate) of their relationship.As a city increases in size, the nonbasic sector will grow at a higher rate thanthe basic sector.

To understand this variance, consider the city of San Jose, California, theearliest of the major computer-technology centers. Clearly, the major employ-ment sector in San Jose is the computer field, which grew dramatically in thelast quarter of the twentieth century. Also, virtually all workers in the com-puter field were producing for a market outside San Jose. With growth in thebasic sector, the nonbasic sector grew at a higher rate, because the increasednumber of workers providing necessary services in San Jose would also requirethese same nonbasic services. As a general rule, for every 100 basic workersadded to the economy, about 200 additional nonbasic workers are needed. Inaddition to the new workers, their families are added to the total number ofpeople comprising the population. Clearly, an increase in the number of basicindustry workers will create a sizable growth in total population; the measure ofthis increase has been referred to as the multiplier effect. But what happens tothe basic-to-nonbasic ratio in times of industry decline? Consider the San Joseexample again. In 2000–2001, the technology industry was hard hit by a na-tional economic slowdown. Thousands of computer-related jobs in San Josewere lost, and the basic sector was diminished in size. The nonbasic sector, inthis case, did not suffer nearly the same loss. The main reason for this differ-ence lies in the fact that discharged workers do not, as a rule, immediately pullup stakes and leave an area. They stay, along with their families, and continueto rely on the nonbasic sector as they seek other employment.


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Suggested Readings: Paul L. Knox, Urbanization: An Introduction to Urban Geography, Engle-wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1994; Allan J. Scott, Metropolis: From the Division of Labor to

Urban Form, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Behavioral geography. Behavioral geography, in which geographers attempt toexplain individual spatial patterns of behavior through studying varied thoughtprocesses, began in the 1960s and emerged from the era of the QuantitativeRevolution in geography. The term behavioral geography comes in part from be-havioralism, a set of concepts found widely in the social and behavioral sci-ences. The Quantitative Revolution focused primarily on the optimizing ofspatial behavior through the theoretical activities of an entity named “eco-nomic man.” The focus of investigation centered on aggregate behavior and ra-tional and logical outcomes. There was no consideration of the thoughtprocesses of individuals involved in the spatial outcomes under investigation.Behavioral geography, on the other hand, views the thoughts and perceptionsof individuals as valid in attempts to explain their spatial patterns of behavior.

When the emphasis shifted to the study of individuals and their approachesto decision making about their environment, the focus of geographical investi-gation began to consider the mental processes that guided those decisions.Studies emerged that reported individual preferences for residential location,which were then aggregated and recorded as a mental map. Other workslooked into the question of the perception of natural hazards. An extensiveliterature began to accumulate, attempting to explain why people chose to livein known hazardous areas. Why, for instance, do millions of people choose tolive on or near the San Andreas fault in California, a known hazardous region?Why would people choose to live in the hurricane zone on the Americansoutheast coast?

Studies began to appear that looked at migration in a different way. In thenew approach, the emphasis was on the reasons behind the decision to migrate,an emphasis again on the thought processes involved. The vast and expansivefield of diffusion emerged from behavioral geography. Diffusion studies havebecome an exceptionally important subfield in geography. Diffusion deals withthe movement of people, goods, and ideas across space; a diffusion barrier, asthe name implies, may well be encountered, which might stop or slow the pro-cess. Behavioral geography gave rise, as well, to studies of individual activityspace, the study of which can help to explain complex questions in social, po-litical, and economic processes.

Suggested Readings: R. G. Golledge and R. J. Stimson, Decision Making and Spatial Behavior:

A Geographical Perspective, New York: Guilford Press, 1996; D. J. Walmsley and G. J. Lewis, eds.,People and Environment: Behavioral Approaches to Human Geography, 2nd ed., New York: JohnWiley & Sons, 1993.

Bid-rent curve. In an urban setting, it is generally true that the highest landvalues will be found near the city center, or central business district. Land val-

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ues away from the city center will decline. Land value and distance from thecity center is expressed in a relationship called the bid-rent curve. The shape ofthe curve is usually convex, indicating rapid declines in land value in zones justoutside city center and lower declines in land value farther away from the citycenter, as the curve flattens.

In a generalized model of the location of functional zones in a city, the citycenter will have the highest values; a commercial and office zone is found next,then an industrial zone, and finally a broad residential zone. It follows thatpopulation density will be highest toward the center because of the high costof land. Conversely, the residential zones, with their lower land costs, willallow a homeowner to purchase a relatively large plat of land for a homesite. Itwould be cost prohibitive for the homeowner to purchase the same land areanear the city center.

The advantages of locating a business closer to the city center are lowertransportation costs and increased accessibility to activities at the center.This accessibility advantage is gained through the higher cost for land. For aresidential location, the requirement for optimal accessibility to the city cen-ter is much lower than it is for a business that requires frequent contact withthe center throughout the workweek. The general rules expressed in the bid-rent curve are (1) transport costs are lower nearer the city center and increaseaway from the city center, (2) land costs are higher near the center and di-minish with distance outward, and (3) any location along a line from city cen-ter to city boundary reflects the acceptance of a specific degree of accessibilityto the center.

The bid-rent curve idea is found in von Thunen’s land use model, the clas-sic study of agricultural land use in concentric zones around a single marketcenter, which was published in 1829 but was not used by American geogra-phers until the mid-twentieth century.

Suggested Readings: Brian Goodall, The Facts on File Dictionary of Human Geography, NewYork: Facts on File, 1987; David T. Herbert and Colin J. Thomas, Cities in Space, City as Place,

New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.


Blockbusting and redlining. In 1954, the legal decision rendered in Brown v.Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas) stated that separate schools for whites andblacks were unconstitutional. Even though the individual schools may havehad all the needed facilities and staff to provide a sound education, the notionof separate but equal was struck down. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1955that schools be desegregated with all due haste. In many U.S. cities, whites fledthe cities to the less socially mixed suburbs. This so-called white flight was en-couraged and hastened by blockbusting, an effort by realtors to convincewhites living on the edges of the expanding black housing areas to sell theirhomes, usually at prices lower than fair market value. Whites were convinced

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that if they stayed, their property values would decrease once blacks movedinto their neighborhoods. Realtors then sold the properties to blacks at priceshigher than market value. The practice of blockbusting added to the levels oftension and hostility between blacks and whites.

The now illegal practice of redlining worked to disallow deteriorating innercity neighborhoods from receiving mortgage money to make necessary im-provements. Redlining occurred when banks identified areas within the innercity that, in their view, presented too high a risk of financial loss to receivefunding. The result of this practice was to further the decline of structureswithin the redlined areas and to drive up prices in other areas. Redlining beganin the United States and spread to other countries, including England. TheCommunity Reinvestment Act (1977) now requires banks to show that inner-city neighborhoods within their area have received a proportionate share ofloans. The practice of redlining, although illegal, may still be practiced in someform; laws against this activity are difficult to enforce.

Suggested Readings: Mark Goodwin, Reshaping the City, London: Edward Arnold, 1998;Philip Kivell, Land and the City: Patterns and Processes of Urban Change, London: Routledge,1993.

Boundary. The term boundary is used extensively in geography. At the interna-tional level, boundaries are the lines that separate countries. Boundaries pro-vide the spatial expression of a country and clearly identify its areal extent as asovereign state. International boundaries are powerful designators. Within theboundary of a country, there exists a unique set of cultural, economic, social,and political attributes. International law demands that boundaries are recog-nized by outsiders as barriers to arbitrary entry. Crossing an international bor-der is done only under certain prescribed conditions and at specific bordercrossing points.

Boundaries are found at all political levels: countries, states, metropolitancenters, cities, towns, and hamlets. The actual boundary may follow a naturaloccurrence, such as a mountain range, river, or lake. This form of demarcationhas its problems, however. Lakes can change shape in times of drought orheavy rainfall; mountainous borders may be difficult to follow due to the com-plexity of the rock formations; and rivers may change course during periods ofhigh water. For example, the boundary between Illinois and Missouri changeddue to severe flooding of the Mississippi River in the 1990s.

Boundaries may be geometric in origin, following particular latitude or lon-gitude lines. A number of states in the western United States follow geometriclines. The same is true of many of the African countries created during thetime of colonialism. Arbitrary boundaries were established by occupying Euro-pean powers, which paid no attention to the boundaries long used by the in-digenous culture groups.

Further classification of boundaries is used, especially in political geography.An antecedent boundary is one drawn before significant settlement has oc-

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curred. The boundary between the United States and Canada from midconti-nent westward was drawn in anticipation of the western movement of peoplein both countries. A subsequent boundary is one drawn following significant

settlement. The splitting of Korea at the 38thparallel for administrative purposes followingWorld War II was intended to be temporary.However, as a result of the Korean War, twocountries common in culture emerged as sover-eign states. This division continued into thetwenty-first century and is likely to remain formany years because of the diametrically op-posed political regimes of each country.

On occasion, boundary disputes may occurbetween countries. Some of these disputes arelong standing. For example, Japan and Russiahave yet to sign a peace treaty ending their in-volvement in World War II. This difficult situ-ation exists because of Russia’s occupation offour islands north of Hokkaido, Japan’s north-ernmost main island. Russia considers these is-lands to be spoils of war. Japan, however,contends that the islands should be returned toit because of earlier treaties. This boundary dis-pute has lasted over five decades and is not ex-pected to be completely resolved in theforeseeable future.

Suggested Readings: Andrew Boyd, An Atlas of World

Affairs, 10th ed., New York: Routledge, 1998; Clive H.Scholfield, ed., Global Boundaries, World Boundaries Se-ries, vol. 1, London: Routledge, 1994.

Break-of-bulk point. Break-of-bulk pointrefers to the place at which cargo is trans-ferred from one form of transportation to an-

other. For example, Cleveland, Ohio, is a break-of-bulk point where taconiteore loaded aboard Great Lakes boats is transferred to railroad cars for furthershipment to regional steel mills. Large industrial cities are the major break-of-bulk points because of the great volumes of commodities destined eitherfor their own manufacturing processes or for further shipment to other cen-ters.

Seaports are break-of-bulk points where oceangoing vessels berth and theircargo is transferred to trucks or railroad cars. River traffic will reach a break-of-bulk point at a waterfall, where cargo on the boats must be off-loaded for fur-ther shipment by truck or rail.

Break-of-bulk point

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A map showing boundaries of the former SovietUnion’s Northern Territories. Source: Naval War Col-

lege Review. Autumn 1991.

During the colonial period in the United States, a series of break-of-bulkpoints were developed on the eastern seaboard from New York to Georgia.Many rivers flow out of the Appalachian Mountains across the crystalline rockof the Piedmont Plateau and then over falls onto the coastal plane. Boats fromthe coast could move upriver as far as the falls. There, loading and transship-ment by land vehicles occurred. Dozens of these break-of-bulk points grew upalong what became known as the fall line.

Break-of-bulk points are of historical importance because they generated thegrowth of settlements. The unloading of cargo from one form of transportationand the reloading onto another may take days. During this process, workersneed all of the services provided by the nonbasic business sector—lodging,food, perhaps medical and dental care, and retail stores. As the break-of-bulkbusiness increases, so will the service sector. Thousands of settlements havegrown up around break-of-bulk points.

Suggested Readings: Dean M. Hanink, Principles and Applications of Economic Geography, NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1997; James W. Harrington and Barney Warf, Industrial Location: Prin-

ciples and Practice, New York: Routledge, 1995.

Buffer state and buffer zone. A buffer state is an independent country that liesbetween two larger and more powerful countries that are, in many cases, antag-onistic toward one another. The presence of a buffer state can help to lessenthe potential for direct conflict between the larger states. For years Mongoliahas served as a buffer state between Russia and China. These two giant coun-tries have at times been allies, but for most of their history a great deal of ten-sion has existed between them.

Nepal, a relatively remote country high in the mountainous terrain of SouthAsia, is a buffer state between India and China, two countries that have fre-quently been at odds with each other. Nepal’s role as a buffer state betweenthese two larger countries is unique—China and India rank first and second inthe world in population. Together, their population exceeds 2.4 billion, morethan one-third of the world’s population.

At various times through history, Taiwan and Korea have acted as buffers be-tween longtime antagonists Japan and China. For nearly 40 years of the twen-tieth century, both Taiwan and Korea were occupied by Japan. When a bufferstate falls under the control of one of the larger antagonists, its status changesto that of a satellite state. As such, it is no longer acting to discourage or deterpossible conflict between the two larger entities but has been joined to one ofthem.

When more than one buffer state lies between two larger and competingcountries, a buffer zone exists. The function of the buffer zone is exactly thesame—to deter potential conflict between the larger and more powerful con-tending countries. In Africa, a cluster of European colonial entities served as abuffer zone separating black nationalist countries in the northern part of thecontinent from South Africa, a white-controlled country. In the mid-twentieth


21

century, this buffer zone ceased to exist as countries within the zone gained in-dependence from colonial rule.

Probably the best known buffer zone comprised the eastern European tier ofcountries located between the old Soviet Union and western Europe andemerged following World War II. With the rapid withdrawal of U.S., British,and French forces following the liberation of Europe, the Soviets quickly beganto exert their influence in eastern Europe. Overnight a true buffer zone cameinto being as a postwar adversarial relationship developed between western Eu-ropean countries (and the United States) and the Soviet Union. Within a fewshort years, the eastern European buffer zone was transformed into a tier of So-viet satellite states, as each became inextricably tied to the Soviet Union. Thisarrangement, too, saw its end in 1990 with the demise of the Soviet Union andits splintering into 15 new sovereign states.

Suggested Readings: Saul B. Cohen, “Global Geopolitical Change in the Post–Cold WarEra,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 81 (1991); John R. Short, An Intro-

duction to Political Geography, 2nd ed., New York: Routledge, 1993.


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C

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Carrying capacity. Carrying capacity may be generally defined as the level ofuse of a resource short of that resource’s deterioration. How many head of cat-tle can graze on an area of grassland and not deteriorate the vegetative coverfor the following year? What is the maximum yield of a particular agriculturalproduct on a particular farmstead? How heavily can a transportation system beused before its efficiency begins to decline? What is the ideal number of visitorsto a national park in a tourist season? What is the maximum tonnage of fishthat may be taken from an ocean fishing ground without depleting the resourcefor the next season?

In the grazing example, if too many cattle graze for a season, grasses may beunable to fully regenerate the following year. If this happens, fewer cattle canbe supported, and the resource (the land and its grasses) has then exceeded itscarrying capacity. The transportation system example speaks to the real-worldsituation in Russia, where the rolling stock on the Trans-Siberian Railroad hasbeen overused for years and is badly in need of maintenance and, in some cases,replacement. Carrying capacity of that important rail line has been severelystrained, and many experts believe that it is only a matter of time before thesystem slows dramatically.

Carrying capacity is a relative term. That is, a cropland area may be produc-ing at maximum levels without causing undue harm to the soil. With the addi-tion of a new fertilizer, for instance, yields may increase significantly. If thisoccurs, and the soil remains healthy, a new and higher-level carrying capacityhas been set. Improvements in agricultural technology through the introduc-tion of new seeds, advanced fertilizers, and improved machinery have greatlyimproved yields over time. A continual increase in carrying capacities is one


important outcome of advanced farming systems and a good measure of thesuccess of the twentieth-century Agricultural Revolution.

In agriculture, carrying capacities have increased throughout history.Hunter-gatherer societies subsisted on whatever edible food products theycould find, and the carrying capacity of most areas was exceedingly low. Conse-quently, the early hunter-gatherer groups were constantly on the move to findfood. The modern world faces a new set of problems in terms of food availabil-ity. In some regions of the world, population growth has put severe pressures onthe land, and food shortages have frequently occurred. Some demographicssuggest that expansion of productive capacity in agriculture cannot continueindefinitely. Two questions seem to emerge most frequently in this regard: Isthere a fixed upper level of carrying capacity that the earth can support givencontinuing population increase? Will new technological breakthroughs occurin time to avert crisis?

There are regions of the world where carrying capacity has already beengreatly exceeded. One of these is the Sub-Saharan region of Africa. Increasednumbers of people and cattle have led to serious declines in farming and graz-ing areas. Unable to apply the latest technology, these areas experience peren-nial shortfalls in productivity. With population continuing to increase, moreregions may suffer a similar fate in the future.

Suggested Readings: John Bongaarts, “Population Pressure and the Food Supply System inthe Developing World,” Population and Development Review, vol. 22 (1996); Joel E. Cohen, How

Many People Can the Earth Support?, New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.

Cartogram. A cartogram is a map transformation in which the administrativeunits (countries, states, counties, etc.) have been either enlarged or reduced inmap area to graphically reflect their numerical share in the topic presented. Forinstance, in a cartogram of population for each country in the world, countrieswith the highest population, such as India and China, would be largest in sizeto reflect their share of world population. Those countries with very low popu-lations would be the most diminished in size. The graphic results can be verydramatic. For example, Canada, whose land area is comparable to that ofChina, would be greatly diminished in a cartogram of population because it hasonly about 26 million people as opposed to China’s 1.3 billion. Japan, on theother hand, although its land area is about that of Montana, would appearmuch larger on a cartogram of population because of its dense population of135 million.

Cartograms are effective in providing graphic presentation of data at aglance. The observer can get an immediate interpretation of the topic mappedand the representation of each country or state in that data set. In the produc-tion of a cartogram, the map attribute of scale is lost as each administrativeunit is represented in a transformed manner. However, continuity (the spatialarrangement of each administrative unit) is maintained to the greatest extentpossible.

Cartogram

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Cartograms of economic themes can be equally revealing. For instance, on acartogram showing gross national product per capita, the developed countriesin the Northern Hemisphere would be large, reflecting their high values. Con-versely, Africa would begreatly diminished relativeto the rest of the world, areflection of its low valuesin this economic measure.

Suggested Readings: MarkMonmonier, Drawing the Line:

Tales of Maps and Cartocontro-

versy, New York: Henry Holt,1995; Arthur H. Robinson et al.,Elements of Cartography, 6th ed.,New York: John Wiley & Sons,1995.

Cartography. Cartographyis a discipline that hasworked over centuries toadvance both the scientificand artistic aspects of mak-ing maps. Scan the pagesof virtually any geographybook, and a profusion ofmaps will be found. Geog-raphy and maps are inextricably connected. Because geography is a spatial dis-cipline that deals with places and interactions, the discipline needs a graphicmedium to record and exhibit these spatial properties. Maps provide thatmedium.

Cartography, like geography, has enjoyed a long and colorful history. Someof the earliest maps in existence date to ancient times. Throughout history,maps have evolved to meet the needs of explorers and analysts of the spatialtradition. Cartographers have created thousands of different map types to meetas many needs.

One of the most famous of all maps is the Mercator projection, a map devel-oped by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to assist explorers onlong oceanic journeys out of site of familiar coastlines. The Mercator projec-tion is used even today as a general reference map of the world, a purpose forwhich it was not designed. Like all maps, the Mercator provides a distorted rep-resentation of the earth’s land and water areas. Distortion on a Mercator is ex-treme. On this map, Greenland appears to be larger than South America, andthe Eurasian landmass, greatly enlarged, seems to almost dwarf the continent ofAfrica. The distortion comes from two factors: (1) the lines of longitude(meridians) are parallel to each other rather than converging toward the poles

Cartography

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Relative traffic congestion. A typical value-by-area cartogram with statesdrawn in proportion to the number of vehicle-miles driven per road mile.Source: J. Fellmann and A. Getis, Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Ac-

tivities, updated ed. Reproduced by permission of The McGraw-Hill Compa-nies.

as they do on a globe; and (2) the latitude lines become progressively morewidely spaced moving from the equator to the poles. These two cartographicfeatures, created for navigation in the age of exploration, present a very dis-torted view of the earth and its major features.

Cartography has benefited over the years from a number of technological ad-vances. With the advent of aviation, space flight, and aerial photography, newbreakthroughs in mapmaking resulted. The high-speed computer provided car-tography with an incredibly powerful analytic tool used in mapmaking to storevolumes of data and to generate and display detailed maps in seconds.

Cartography as a modern discipline has national and regional organizations,holds professional meetings devoted to the sharing of cartographic researchand advancements, and publishes professional journals. Despite its individual-ity as a discipline, however, its product—maps—are so closely associated withgeography that cartography appears for all practical purposes to be a part of thediscipline of geography. Courses in cartography are taught in college geographyprograms. Cartography laboratories, now replete with high-speed-graphicscomputers, are found in geography departments, and fully trained cartogra-phers are members of the faculties of nearly all college geography departments.

Suggested Readings: John Campbell, Map Use and Analysis, 3rd ed., Dubuque, Iowa:WCB/McGraw-Hill, 1998; Arthur H. Robinson et al., Elements of Cartography, 6th ed., NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1995.

Census. A census is an official governmental count of such characteristics aspopulation, housing, agriculture, or manufacturing. In the United States, pop-ulation and housing censuses are taken every decade, in years ending in zero.Census taking for agriculture and manufacturing occurs every five years. By farthe most widely known census is that of population. In addition to the numbersof people tabulated, information is gathered on a variety of demographic, eco-nomic, and social characteristics of the population. This enormous assemblageof population data is extremely important in human geography. The popula-tion census is the most important single source of information available aboutthe populace.

Not only are the data of value, but the manner in which the data are col-lected is ideally configured for the geographer. All population data are tabu-lated by census tract, an areal unit representing approximately 5,000 peoplethat is closely aligned with existing neighborhoods. The actual size of a censustract will vary considerably: tracts in the high-density central city may be onlya few square blocks, reflecting the greater number of people per unit area. Con-versely, suburban districts will be larger in size. Data accumulated by censustract are ideally configured for the compilation of choropleth maps.

Geographers study census tract data on education, income, age, ethnicity,and a host of other categories to better understand the demographic complexi-ties of a place. Politicians, for instance, would be interested in census tract datathat could lead to predictions about voting behavior.

Census

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The U.S. Constitution directed that the census be conducted so that appor-tionment of seats in the House of Representatives could be accomplished. Ifthe enumeration for a region is significantly lower than that of the previouscensus, a state may lose seats in the House of Representatives. Likewise, an in-crease in population could result in a state’s gaining one or more seats. Reap-portionment is an extremely important outcome of the population census.Strong criticism has resulted when areas in central cities have allegedly beenundercounted due to higher numbers of transients, homeless, and generally lessaccessible people. In such situations, statistical estimating has been suggested.This approach has met with resistance by those who point out that the U.S.Constitution requires that the population census be accomplished with a 100percent physical count. This issue will no doubt remain controversial as eachcensus year approaches.

Suggested Readings: The Census Bureau Home Page, www.census.gov; State Census DataCenters, www.census.gov/sdc/www; Arthur Haupt and Thomas Kane, Population Handbook, 4thed., Population Reference Bureau, 1997.

Central business district. Traditionally, the term central business district (CBD)was used to mean the downtown area of American cities. The CBD is the coreof an urban area and the center of commercial activity, civic life, and enter-tainment. The role of the CBD is still generally strong, but its preeminence ofearlier decades has faded to some degree with the growth of suburbs and the de-centralization and dispersal of some core activities.

The CBD is important in urban history. It marked the first permanent devel-oped area of a settlement, and its location was usually decided by a significantsite factor, such as a landing point on a navigable river, location on a railroadline, or key location on a seacoast. CBD growth and a focus on transportationhave gone hand in hand with the growth of American cities. If a city had rail-road lines, the station or depot was invariably in the downtown area. Internalpublic transportation systems, such as streetcars and buses, converged on theCBD from all quadrants to provide service to employees of downtown busi-nesses. In its heyday the CBD was a major employment complex during the dayand an entertainment center in the evening.

The CBD contained the highest-value land and the highest density of activ-ities (see Bid-rent curve). Since land was costly, tall skyscrapers emerged; andthese structures allowed for maximum accessibility for business workers intheir daily activities.

All of the classic models of urban structure contain a well-defined CBD. Asurban areas expanded in size and new transportation systems allowed busi-nesses to locate farther from the center without sacrificing accessibility to it,the traditional function of the CBD began to change. In some cities, areas inthe CBD became neglected and the infrastructure began to deteriorate. Insome of the worst cases, abandoned buildings and slum areas began to appear asbusiness and personal tax bases moved out of the CBD. Concerted efforts have


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been ongoing in most American cities to upgrade the CBD and to enhance itseconomic well-being. Previously run-down neighborhoods are experiencinggentrification as investment money is directed toward restoration and renewalof residential blocks. Businesses that may have previously fled to suburbia arebeing enticed to again locate within the CBD. No single rebuilding formulawill fit all CBDs, but it is clear that virtually all urban areas want to developand maintain a viable, if somewhat functionally modified, CBD.

Suggested Readings: Larry R. Ford, Cities and Buildings: Skyscrapers, Skid Rows, and Suburbs,

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994; Mark Goodwin, Reshaping the City, London:Edward Arnold, 1998.

Centrifugal/centripetal forces. The terms centrifugal and centripetal forces,when taken from the physical sciences and applied to geography, refer to forcesthat tend to disintegrate (centrifugal) or bind together (centripetal) a spatialunit. These terms were first used to identify forces that produced change inurban areas.

Centrifugal forces compel businesses and population segments to leave theurban center and relocate to the suburban fringe. A number of reasons may beassociated with this movement, including crowding and traffic congestion nearthe center of cities as both population and business activity expand within alimited area. Another factor may be the need for a larger storage facility as amanufacturer increases production. If there is no opportunity to expand in thecity center, businesses move to the suburban fringe. As American cities beganto experience infrastructural decay, an increase in crime, and generally poorerservices in the post–World War II era, many business concerns chose to relo-cate in the suburban areas. By 1960, for instance, more manufacturing was lo-cated in the suburbs than in the city centers.

Centripetal forces, on the other hand, tend to draw people to the center ofa city. The downtown area appeals to people and businesses that value theimportant attribute of accessibility and will benefit from the close proximityof other activities. Businesses that operate best in the business skyscraper, forinstance, will be drawn to the center of viable, strong cities. Many servicefunctions—such as restaurants, hotels, cultural centers, and governmentoffices—will locate where they can best serve the needs of people and busi-nesses in the city center.

These counteracting forces have also been applied to sovereign states. Cen-trifugal forces are divisive in their power to pull states apart. For example, theSoviet Union fractured into 15 new countries following its demise in 1991.Within the new Russia, a number of ethnic groups have made overtures towardbecoming independent sovereign states. At one point in the early 1990s, all ofSiberia was intent on detaching from Russia. A number of other regions haveseen similar occurrences. Among them are the former Yugoslavia (see Balka-nization) and Czechoslovakia.

At the nation-state level, centripetal forces work to hold the country to-gether. Strong national traditions that are accepted by the people can be a


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binding factor. A single language and a unified set of beliefs are other cohesivefactors. A strong education system can work to reinforce the building nature ofa nation-state and inform its youth.

Suggested Readings: Brian Goodall, The Facts on File Dictionary of Human Geography, NewYork: Facts on File, 1987; David Hooson, ed., Geography and National Identity, London: BasilBlackwell, 1994.

Choropleth map. The choropleth map, which shows distributions by area, isone of the most frequently used maps in geography. The word choropleth derivesfrom the Greek roots choro (area) and pleth (value). The choropleth map usessymbols to represent values for administrative units such as countries, states,counties, and census districts. As such, it is a map that can effectively be usedto report area values at virtually any scale, from global to local.

For example, a choropleth map showing the percentage of manufacturingworkers in each state in the United States would have a single, uniform symbol(e.g., color, gray tone, etc.) for each state. The symbols are assigned to therange of values, lowest to highest, in a selected number of intervals, using oneof several statistical methods. Both the number of intervals and the symbols arechosen to achieve the truest cartographic representation of the numerical datarange and configuration.

Since the choropleth map uses an average number (i.e., percent of manufac-turing employees in our example) to represent the entire state, there would beno basis on which a viewer of the map could validly infer that one part of thestate or another had higher or lower values, although this would surely be true.In order to gain perspective on any state’s internal distribution of values, achoropleth map based on county averages would be required. Taking this no-tion another step, detailed information about the distribution of values withina county would require a choropleth map of census districts within that county.Each of these examples specifies a change in scale, and such changes suggestcertain implicit limitations in the choropleth map.

A choropleth map showing a global pattern would have a uniform symbolfor each country. The advantage here is wide global coverage; the disadvantageis that every country is represented by only one symbol and no detailed infor-mation can be shown. At a local level (country, for example) a great deal of de-tailed information is provided, but the area presented is greatly limited. Withthese limitations of choropleth maps in mind, the geographer must decide thescale of investigation (and the detail of the map) that is appropriate for theanalysis underway.

Suggested Readings: Borden C. Dent, Cartography: Thematic Map Design, Dubuque, Iowa:Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1996; Alan M. MacEachren, How Maps Work, New York: GuilfordPress, 1995.

Christaller’s central place theory. Walter Christaller (1896–1969), a Germaneconomic geographer, wrote his dissertation in 1933 on the subject of urbansettlements and the roles they play in providing goods and services to their sur-


29

rounding nonurban region. Christaller was the first geographer to fully developthis notion; others had done preliminary work on the idea but not to any sig-nificant degree. Christaller used the term central place to designate these urbansettlements. He set out to build a theory to explain regularities noted in the sizeand spacing of urban settlements in southern Germany. Central places tended

to be spaced apart one from the other so that eachhad a monopoly on providing goods and servicesto their local area. In addition, all central placeswere part of a system of counterparts that spreadacross the wider area. Also, larger central placescontrolled a more extensive area and small ones alesser area. With this last inclusion in the theory,Christaller introduced the idea of hierarchical lev-els, each with an areal spread dependent on its size.

To truly develop a theory from his original em-pirical observations, Christaller used an approachremarkably similar to the one developed in vonThunen’s land use model, which was published in1826. Christaller, like von Thunen, proposed a uni-form plain, a central place that provided basicgoods and services, and a population in the nonur-ban area that was evenly spread out on the plainand uniform in its characteristics. Each centralplace provided products and services that had theirown threshold, or necessary numbers of consumers,to support the businesses. Also, each of the goods

and services provided in the central place reflected a maximum range, the dis-tance traveled by nonurban residents to procure the goods and services.

The resulting spatial configuration of the central place system was one ofcomplementary and contiguous regions, with each region in the shape of ahexagon. A central place was located in each of the hexagons, and smaller cen-tral places were found along the edges of the hexagons, each of which wassmaller in size with its own region of influence.

Christaller’s dissertation on central places did not become part of geogra-phy’s conceptual mainstream until the 1960s, when the Quantitative Revolu-tion in the discipline was in full swing. Christaller’s ideas were especiallywelcomed at that time by a group of geographers at the University of Washing-ton, who used his central place theory as a basis for a number of quantitativeand statistical approaches to geography. Christaller’s central place theory is animportant component in geography today, and an extensive body of literatureon central places has evolved in the decades since the 1960s.

Suggested Readings: Walter Christaller, Central Places in Southern Germany, trans. C. W.Baskin, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1966; Leslie J. King, Central Place Theory, New-bury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1984.


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Walter Christaller. Source: Library of Congress.

City-state. The term city-state refers to any state that is principally composed ofa city and a limited hinterland, or service area. City-states represent the earli-est form of states. Following the first Agricultural Revolution, some 12,000years ago, city-states began to form in South Asia, the Middle East, and LatinAmerica. Centers for these emerging urban strongholds were found inMesopotamia, the Nile Valley, and in the regions of the Inca and Aztec culturegroups in Latin America.

These centers usually contained a relatively dense concentration of peoplein a limited area surrounded by a protective wall. The region immediately adja-cent to the walled city housed farmers, craftsmen, and merchants closely boundto the city. The city-state, in time, evolved into the sovereign state we knowtoday as population increased, economic activity expanded, more urban placeswere established, and the political reach of the major city extended great dis-tances.

In the modern era, two major centers in Asia are recognized as true city-states: Hong Kong and Singapore, both former British colonies. Until its returnto the political control of China, Hong Kong functioned as a true city-state.With its strategic location on the coast of China and with immediate access tothe major Chinese industrial center of Kuangtung Province, Hong Kongthrived as a global financial, trade, and shipping center. One of the originalAsian economic powerhouses, known as the Asian Tigers, Hong Kong has afuture that is somewhat clouded now that it has again come under Chinese po-litical control.

Singapore continues to thrive as a strong economic center strategically lo-cated on global air transportation routes and important sea-lanes of commercethrough the Strait of Malacca. Singapore is an island city-state with an area ofonly 620 square kilometers. Despite its size, Singapore is an extremely impor-tant transshipment center and financial leader. English is the primary lan-guage, a plus for global business, and the population is 70 percent ethnicChinese, many with strong business connections throughout East and South-east Asia. Singapore’s port is first rate, and the city-state has become a leader inhandling containerized cargo.

Suggested Readings: Thomas R. Leinback and Richard Ulack, eds., Southeast Asia: Develop-

ment and Diversity, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000; Martin Perry et al., Singapore:

A Developmental City State, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

Cold war. World War II ended in 1945, but the prospects for a true and lastingpeace were short lived. With the quick withdrawal of Allied forces from West-ern Europe following the surrender of Germany, the Soviet Union (USSR)quickly brought the neighboring Eastern European countries under its control.The subsequent threat of a Soviet takeover of Germany prompted the UnitedStates and other Western European countries to unite to prevent such a move.The Truman Doctrine was enacted in 1947, committing the United States to anumber of military alliances around the world. At the same time, the Soviet

Cold war

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Union continued to solidify its hold on Eastern Europe. The two major antag-onists in this era of tension were the United States and the Soviet Union. Eachwas supported by a cadre of countries sympathetic to the political stance of oneof the emerging superpowers.

In this era the model of first, second, and third worlds evolved. The firstworld included the United States and its cohort of supporters, the Western Eu-ropean countries, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The secondworld was composed of the Soviet Union, its Eastern European satellites, andChina. The third world included all the rest of the world, primarily the poorestcountries.

For the next 40 years the so-called cold war persisted. It was marked by aclear, bipolar power balance between the United States and the Soviet Union.Both competed for economic growth, military might, and influence over othercountries. Although direct conflict between the two antagonists was averted,there were numerous proxy wars and skirmishes around the world that cer-tainly involved the superpowers. Direct military involvement on the part ofthe superpowers happened on a number of occasions. The Soviet Union inter-ceded in Hungary (1956) and Afghanistan (1979–89). The United States wasengaged directly in the Korean War (1950–53), the Dominican Republic(1965), Granada (1983), and Panama (1983). Its most significant military en-gagement began as a small-scale military assistance commitment in SouthVietnam in 1954 following the withdrawal of the French from military activityin Vietnam during that year. The Vietnam War escalated through the 1960sand early 1970s into an extremely serious and protracted war of attrition. TheUnited States finally withdrew from Vietnam in 1975, ending an era of greatmilitary controversy and domestic unrest. The Soviet Union experienced itsown extended military engagement when it invaded Afghanistan in 1979 inorder to defend the national government it had helped to establish. Soviettroops finally withdrew from Afghan soil 10 years later.

Without doubt the United States and the Soviet Union came closest to di-rect conflict during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. War was averted when theSoviets agreed to dismantle missile installations in Cuba that were well withinrange of striking a large portion of the eastern United States.

The cold war brought with it the notion of containment, a plan to deter theadvance of communism by containing it within the borders of the SovietUnion. The domino theory also emerged in this period. A corollary to con-tainment, the domino theory postulated that if, for instance, one SoutheastAsian country fell to communism, then others would fall in sequence, like arow of dominoes.

Each of the superpowers enacted programs during the cold war to bolster itsposition. The United States set up the Marshall Plan in 1948 to assist in the re-building of shattered European economies. The Soviet Union responded withthe Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), aimed at consol-idating the economies of its Eastern European satellites. The United States and

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its allies formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The So-viet Union responded with the creation of the Warsaw Pact. Other countriesin the Warsaw Pact included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Ger-many, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Both of these organizations formalizedthe military integration of each side.

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, COMECON was disbanded,NATO began to change in structure, and the cold war was over. With the endof the bipolar balance of power and the emergence of the United States as theonly superpower, the global geopolitical situation clearly began changing. Ithas even been proposed that Russia become a NATO member because the newthreats to global peace may well emanate from regions to the south, especiallythe Middle East.

Suggested Readings: Saul B. Cohen, “Global Political Change in the Post–Cold War Era,”Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 81 (1991); Jan Nijman, “The Limits of Su-perpower: The United States and the Soviet Union since World War II,” Annals of the Associa-

tion of American Geographers, vol. 82 (1992).

Colonialism. The term colonialism refers to the exercise of control by a devel-oped state over an underdeveloped state or region. Although the historical in-cidence of colonialism is most widely associated with dominance exerted byEuropean countries, the process is not exclusive to them. Russia, Japan, andthe United States have also engaged in colonialism. Two major periods in colo-nialism have been identified.

The first period followed the European discovery of the land in the WesternHemisphere in 1492. Two years later, the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) dividednew land areas between Spain and Portugal. The dividing line was drawn alonga meridian 1,800 kilometers west of the Cape Verde Islands. Spain was thegreat benefactor of this decision, receiving claim to all of North America andall of South America except the eastern position, which became PortugueseBrazil.

The second major wave of colonialism occurred in the late nineteenth cen-tury. In 1884, the Berlin Conference convened to decide which regions inAfrica would be occupied by which European countries. The “carving up ofAfrica,” as it has been called, eventually brought an unprecedented degree ofchange to Africa south of the Sahara Desert. The impact of this era is felt eventoday. France and Britain collectively occupied the largest area of Africa(about 70 percent of colonial territory). Portugal, Belgium, Italy, and Spainalso colonized Africa.

The primary incentive for colonialism was economic gain. In the case ofLatin America, vast amounts of gold and silver were shipped back to fill thecoffers on the Iberian Peninsula. Another incentive was to spread Christianity.The colonial experience brought enormous changes to the indigenous culturegroups (see Acculturation).

Although the colonial era had some positive outcomes, the experience forthe indigenous culture groups was decidedly negative. Perhaps the most serious

Colonialism

33

outcome was the economic exploitation of the colonies by the occupyingcountries. Some have suggested that the form of global economic geographydeveloped during the colonial era heavily favored the industrial countries andplayed havoc with the colonies. The economic system put in place was calledmercantilism. In this system, the colony provided raw materials and foodstuffsto the colonizer, which in turn produced finished goods with a high-value-added component. In short, the colony received very little compensation forthe raw materials, and the colonizer made the largest profits through manufac-ture. In addition, the colony was not allowed to make items that were made bythe colonizer. The colonial era brought about a system of uneven economic de-velopment that worked to the immense advantage of the colonizers. The core-periphery model of economic development had its start in the colonial era.

By the middle of the twentieth century, most colonies had received their in-dependence. But their developmental problems are far from over. One of thelegacies of the colonial era was the minimal degree of internal developmentthat was accomplished. Incomplete road networks, underdeveloped agricul-tural regions, and inadequate physical infrastructural systems were left to thecolonies when independence was gained. With little capital and experiencedleadership, colonies were faced with the ominous task of completing the basicbuilding of their countries at very high costs. In many former colonies, the taskof completing regional development is still far from completed.

Suggested Readings: Samuel Aryeetey-Attoh, ed., Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa, UpperSaddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997; Peter J. Taylor, Political Geography: World Economy, Na-

tion-State and Locality, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Commercial Revolution. The great European voyages of exploration and dis-covery beginning in the fifteenth century changed the world. The era of thegreat sailing ships coursing the world’s oceans eventually connected all conti-nents and opened up an era of unprecedented economic exchange that hascontinued to the present. The 100 years from 1650 to 1750 mark the era of theCommercial Revolution, a time when European connections had been madein virtually every part of the world. This time period, running concurrentlywith the second Agricultural Revolution and occurring just before the Indus-trial Revolution, was marked by an extraordinary increase in the exchange ofgoods worldwide. Agricultural products from South Asia, spices from East Asia,and sugarcane from the Caribbean made their way to Europe, the global head-quarters for marketing of commercial products.

The Commercial Revolution came about because of technological advance-ments in shipbuilding and a particularly significant breakthrough in the art ofmarine navigation. New ships of the era were larger, stronger, and capable ofweathering long and often stormy transoceanic voyages. Their large cargo ca-pacities ensured profitable returns on acquired commodities.

Toward the end of the Commercial Revolution a breakthrough in naviga-tion was made that greatly expanded global maritime outreach. This advance-


34

ment was the perfection of timepieces accurate enough to be used in the pre-cise measurement of longitude at sea. John Harrison (1693–1776), a clockmaker from Yorkshire, England, invented the timepiece, a marine chronome-ter, which was called H5. Before this breakthrough, navigators had the abilityto accurately measure latitude (from observations of the sun at noon and thenorth star, Polaris, in the Northern Hemisphere) but precise longitude deter-mination was not possible. With this advancement, the era of global outreachwas significantly enhanced.

Suggested Readings: Rondo Cameron, A Concise Economic History of the World: From Paleo-

lithic Times to the Present, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997; Dava Sobel, Longitude: The

True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, New York:Walker & Co., 1995.

Comparative advantage. The concept of comparative advantage states that anarea will specialize in the production of items for which it has the greatest eco-nomic advantage over other areas. Countries and regions in a free-market sys-tem will specialize in the production of particular goods when it is to theireconomic advantage to do so. The economic advantage in this sense derivesfrom two measures, the ratio of advantage and the ratio of disadvantage. Thesetwo measures determine comparative advantage. For example, assume that re-gion X produces tractors at 60 percent of the cost of producing tractors in re-gion Y. Assume as well that region X produces calculators at 80 percent of thecost of producing calculators in region Y. With this basic information at hand,and noting that each region can, if it chooses, produce both tractors and calcu-lators for local consumption and not engage in trade, region X will specialize intractors because of a greater ratio of advantage, and region Y will produce cal-culators because of a lesser ratio of disadvantage. Both regions have derived acomparative advantage in this simple example: region X can produce tractorsmore efficiently and region Y can produce calculators more efficiently.

Obviously, the economic landscape is much more complex than this exam-ple suggests. A region may have an advantage in resource base that ultimatelywill favor it for specialization in particular goods. There may be a particularlyvaluable labor supply in a region that would provide it a significant advantageover other regions. Access to markets and lower costs of transportation andother production inputs could also provide advantages to one region over oth-ers in the production of particular goods. On occasion, firms will relocate totake advantage of lower labor costs, lower taxes, and greater resource avail-ability.

Regions have also shifted to the production of other goods when price struc-tures have changed. For example, for most of the twentieth century, westernEurope chose to produce manufactured goods and to import large quantities ofgrains from other regions. But when grain prices grew dramatically followingsurges in crude oil costs in the 1970s, western Europe shifted some of its pro-ductive efforts to the raising of grains for local consumption rather than con-


35

tinue to pay the inflated prices on the global market. Shifts of this type are in-dicators of the dynamic and ever-changing global economic system.

Suggested Readings: Bela Balassa, “The Changing Pattern of Comparative Advantage ofManufactured Goods,” Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1979; Edward E. Leamer, Sources

of International Comparative Advantage: Theory and Evidence, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984.

Concentric zone model. In the mid-1920s, sociologist Ernest W. Burgess devel-oped the concentric zone model, a theoretical model of urban structure basedon his studies of Chicago. The model assumed a circular urban place that in-cluded five functional zones in a concentric circle design (compare withChristaller’s central place theory and von Thunen’s land use model). At thecenter of the model was the central business district (CBD) with its own fi-nancial, office, entertainment, and cultural sectors. Land in the CBD was thehighest in value (see Bid-rent curve). The second zone was one of transition.Within this zone were found wholesaling and warehousing businesses, light in-dustry, and a mix of occupied and deteriorating residential housing. Zones oneand two, Burgess suggested, identified the dynamic aspect of city growth. AsChicago grew in population and number of economic functions, pressure wasexerted outward from the center to expand each zone into the next. The CBDand the transition zone, according to Burgess, were always expanding. Addingto this dynamic change was the movement of immigrant groups from the tran-sition zone outward to areas of better housing, only to have their vacatedspaces filled by newly arrived immigrants.

Primarily blue-collar workers who traveled by public transportation into thetransition zone for employment occupied the third zone. More-affluent middle-class residents who worked primarily in the CBD occupied the fourth zone.The final zone in Burgess’s model was the suburban. This zone contained high-value residential sections for persons who worked in management positions, es-pecially within the CBD.

Chicago was of particular importance to Burgess because of the way it grewfollowing the great fire of 1871. The city developed a socially segregated urbanstructure in the decades following that tragedy. Social patterning reflected aneed for low-cost housing for blue-collar workers as economic growth in thecity expanded. The new industries initially located in the transition zone nearthe blue-collar housing zone. However, it was not necessary that housing be lo-cated within walking distance of the industries because of the new streetcarsystem, which provided workers with efficient and low-cost access to the work-place. Real estate speculation increased in the suburbs as wealth began to accu-mulate for business owners and managers.

Burgess’s zones came to be known as “rings of rising affluence” within a dy-namic model in which the inner zones encroached on the outer.

Suggested Readings: Sue Hanson, The Geography of Urban Transportation, 2nd ed., New York:Guilford Press, 1995; Philip Kivell, Land and the City: Patterns and Processes of Urban Change,

London: Routledge, 1993.


36

Connectivity. Connectivity is a term applied to all of the possible ways in whichpeople and places are connected. In going to work or school, an individual willtake the most efficient course and conveyance to reach a destination. For thehigh school student this may involve a short walk across an open field in a ruralarea or a several-mile ride on a school bus in the city. Workers may drive to theoffice or take the bus or streetcar. People who are going to be late for work orschool use the telephone to alert someone of their delayed arrival. People caneasily speak with relatives in another state or order something from a catalog bytelephone or through e-mail. The gasoline used in cars and buses originated ascrude oil, probably shipped by tanker from a distant country. The speaker at thecivic center flew by international airliner from Europe, took a taxicab to thepresentation and then was driven to a hotel for a night’s stay before taking anAmtrak train to the next engagement.

It follows that there is a direct relationship between the degree of connec-tivity across space and resultant measures of accessibility, a companion con-cept. During the Quantitative Revolution numerical measures of connectivitywere developed. The purpose of these measures was to determine the efficiencyof a set of places. For instance, two points (nodes) connected by one line (ver-tice) would be less efficient than having the two points connected by two lines.Imagine the points to represent two hamlets in a rural area. Connectivity mea-surement would suggest that two roads connecting the hamlets would result ina more efficient connection. A number of indices of connectivity were derivedto measure the efficiency of spatial networks during this era. See also Network.

Suggested Readings: John C. Lowe and S. Moryadas, The Geography of Movement, Boston:Houghton Mifflin, 1975; Tim F. Wood, “Thinking in Geography,” Geography, vol. 72 (1987).

Conservation. See Environmental awareness.

Contagion diffusion. See Expansion diffusion.

Conurbation. Conurbation is the joining together of large urban centers sothat their edges create a continuous developed area. There are a number ofthese giant urban complexes in the world. The most prominent is the highlyurbanized corridor in the northeastern United States, the conurbation namedMegalopolis by the French geographer Jean Gottmann, in a study in the1950s.

There are two more conurbations of great size in the United States. One ex-tends from Chicago along the Great Lakes to Pittsburgh, lying in the center ofthe great North American manufacturing belt and straddling the major trans-portation corridor connecting the East with the Midwest. The other lies alongthe West Coast and runs from San Francisco to San Diego. From the 1970s tothe end of the twentieth century, the West Coast conurbation grew the fastestof the three, a reflection of generally higher population growth in the western

Conurbation

37

(and southern) United States during that period. The three major U.S. conur-bations have been named Boswash (Boston to Washington, D.C.), Chipitts(Chicago to Pittsburgh), and Sansan (San Francisco to San Diego).

A number of conurbations are found in other parts of the world. Theeast–west corridor between Tokyo and the industrial region on northernKyushu, Japan, contains a densely packed set of major cities. A part of the cor-ridor follows the ancient Tokaido Road, an important transportation link incenturies past. Canada’s Main Street from the Ontario Peninsula throughMontreal and Quebec City is another. In England, conurbations are found inthe north linking the industrial cities of Manchester and Sheffield, and in thehighly urbanized London area. The Ruhr region of Germany is another con-urbation linking a number of industrial cities.

Urban growth is continuing throughout the world. It is expected that exist-ing conurbations will gradually increase in size and new ones will begin toemerge.

Suggested Readings: Martin P. Brockerhoff, “An Urbanizing World,” Population Bulletin, vol.55 (2000); Stanley D. Brunn and Jack F. Williams, Cities of the World: World Regional Urban De-

velopment, 2nd ed., New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

Core-periphery model. The spatial structure of an economic system that in-cludes unequal development is the basis of the core-periphery model. The coreregion consists of countries holding the greatest economic power. These coun-tries have accumulated the most wealth and have attained the highest levels ofaffluence. They are the most productive economically and traditionally are themost innovative. Countries on the periphery, on the other hand, lack thesepositive measures of development. They have for the most part been suppliersof raw materials, commodities, and brainpower to the core. The core-periph-ery model reflects a regionalism that got its start in the first era of colonialism,became reinforced in the Industrial Revolution, and continues to the presentera of globalization. Core-periphery interactions are marked by a trade rela-tionship that favors the core and results in a decidedly uneven economic de-velopment. The core consists of the highly developed countries (HDC) andthe periphery consists of the lesser-developed countries (LDC).

The model is most closely related with the economist John Friedmann,who initially wrote about it in the 1960s. Friedmann saw the core-peripheryrelationship as one of four major stages in the historical development of theglobal economic system. His stages included: (1) a preindustrial society; (2)core-periphery relationships; (3) the dispersal of some economic activity(and a minimal level of control) to the periphery; and (4) the spatial integra-tion of the global economic system, resulting in greater interdependency be-tween member countries in both the core and the periphery.

The core-periphery model is found in Wallerstein’s world-system analysis,developed by American social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein in the 1960s and1970s, whose work has become a mainstay in economic and political geography.


38

The core-periphery model has accurately reflected basic global economic rela-tionships since the advent of colonialism. This is true despite great changes inspecific economic forms and activities over time. For instance, in recent yearsthe core has shifted its economic focus more toward high-technology industries,global finance, and other service-related efforts. In turn, their historic high re-liance on the production of basic commodities, like steel and the manufacture oftangible goods, has declined relatively. Some of these activities have been takenup by countries in the periphery. Yet, the basic economic inequity that has his-torically identified the core and the periphery persists.

Although the core-periphery model is most associated with global economicrelations, it applies as well at the regional level. For instance, the industrialsuccess of the highly urbanized U.S. eastern seaboard (core) is due, at least inpart, to the transfer of coal from the Appalachian region (periphery), with lit-tle heed to the associated negative social and environmental consequences inthe Appalachian Mountains.

Suggested Readings: David S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So

Rich and Some Are So Poor, New York: W. W. Norton, 1998; Philip W. Porter and Eric S. Shep-pard, A World of Difference: Society, Nature, Development, New York: Guilford Press, 1998.

Counterurbanization. Counterurbanization refers to a shift in populationmovement from urban to rural areas. In the 1970s and 1980s in the UnitedStates, the steady influx of people from rural areas into cities began to reverse.During that period more people moved from metropolitan areas and beyondsuburbia to small towns and rural settings than those moving to cities.

There were a number of reasons for this shift. Among them were the searchfor a slower pace of life and an opportunity to experience a farm setting, al-though most did not intend to earn a living through farming. Many people inthe counterurbanization movement were retired and had achieved a highenough level of affluence to change residential location. Improved transporta-tion and communication systems also made it easier for people to relocate tothe rural areas and still be connected to the city. For example, with the adventof telecommuting, many employees worked from home via computers andrarely traveled to the office. The counterurbanization movement slowed in thelate 1980s. Interest again peaked in urban renewal projects and the gentrifica-tion of older and deteriorated urban neighborhoods.

A number of European countries experienced counterurbanization duringthe same time period. As in the United States, the movement tended to slowin the 1980s for essentially the same reasons.

Suggested Readings: A. G. Champion, Counterurbanization: The Changing Pace and Nature of

Population Deconcentration, London: Edward Arnold, 1989; Patricia Gober, “Americans on theMove,” Population Bulletin, vol. 48 (1993).

Crude birthrate. A common measure of fertility, the crude birthrate (CBR) isbased on the annual number of live births per thousand population. For exam-

Crude birthrate

39

ple, the western African country of Benin in 1998 had approximately 270,000live births and a total population of 6 million. Benin’s crude birthrate is deter-mined in the following manner:

Its crude birthrate is stated as “45 births per 1,000 population.” The CBR istermed crude because total population is used in the calculation, and this num-ber therefore includes males and those females who cannot give birth. More-refined and age-specific birthrate calculations are used by demographers.

CBR measures are used to determine specific regional differences inbirthrate within a country. For example, the Soviet Union, before its demise,had widely ranging birthrates among its republics. Birthrates in the predomi-nantly Slavic republics (Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, etc.) were much lowerthan in the Central Asian republics, where Muslim culture groups lived. Thehigher rates reflected customs and traditions emphasizing larger family-size ex-pectations.

CBR measures vary widely around the world. Countries in western Africahave CBRs ranging from the mid-40s to over 50. Western European countries,on the other hand, have CBR values that average about 11. Generally, it is truethat CBRs are lower in developed countries than are those in the developingworld. The CBR for the world in the year 2000 was approximately 22 per thou-sand.

Individual countries have instituted population policies at times. For in-stance, in 1979, China started its famous “one child per family” plan. Con-cerned with its burgeoning total population and wanting to cut back onpopulation growth, China tried hard to convince its people of the merits of thisstringent approach. There was a great deal of resistance to the plan, and therates of feminine infanticide rose dramatically. In China, male offspring arehighly desired. If the one child born was a female, in many cases she was put todeath. Such brutal outcomes eventually led to the effective end of the one-child policy in the mid-1980s. CBR is one of the two population measures,along with crude death rate, used in the calculation of demographic transi-tion, another powerful indicator of a country’s population history.

Suggested Readings: Arthur Haupt and Thomas Kane, Population Handbook, 4th ed., Wash-ington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 1997; several world links are found at the Web sitefor the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/nchswww.

Crude death rate. The crude death rate (CDR) is a measure of mortalitywithin a population. CDR is based on the annual number of deaths per thou-sand population. For example, the western African country of Benin in 1998had approximately 84,000 deaths in its total population of 6 million. Benin’scrude death rate is determined in the following manner:

Crude death rate

40

270,000 � 1,000CBR � � 45

6,000,000

It is stated as “14 deaths per 1,000 population.” The crude death rate is termedcrude because the total population is used in the expression. As such, age-specific death rate measures are used to gain precise estimates. Usually, thesemeasures consider five-year age groups and use the same basic formula. So, forthe five-year cohort 55–59, the death rate would be considerably higher thanthe rate for the 25–29 age group. Death rate measures are used to study differ-ences regionally and to compare urban and rural variability. Death rate mea-sures also illustrate that women have longer life spans than men and thatoccupational types can be related to higher or lower death rates. Women in thedeveloping world are much more likely to die in childbirth than in other re-gions of the world.

Since the end of World War II, death rates have been declining all over theworld. This is due in large part to the spread of technology and medical care,which have brought a generally healthier environment to all world regions, andto significant declines in the infant mortality rate. It may be surprising to notethat death rates in the developed and less-developed regions are essentiallycomparable. In fact, in some years the death rate for developed regions may behigher. This is due to the much higher average ages in the developed regionsand the higher death rates associated with advanced age. Despite generallylower death rates globally, there are still significant differences noted regionally.Western African CDRs average about 16 per thousand. Some European coun-tries have seen periods of several years in which CDRs have exceeded CBRs,which results in a negative rate of natural increase. Crude death rate is used,along with crude birthrate, in the determination of demographic transition, anindicator of the historical changes in a country’s population.

Suggested Readings: Arthur Haupt and Thomas Kane, Population Handbook, 4th ed., Wash-ington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 1997; several world population links are found atwww.cdc.gov/nchswww.

Cultural convergence. Cultural convergence occurs when an attribute of oneculture group is adopted by another. Countries in the developed world have re-markably similar technological bases and economic structures. Even similarcultural traits are shared; one example is Japan’s adoption of golf and baseballfrom the United States. These outcomes are the result of cultural convergenceand occur because of instantaneous communication systems and high-speedtransportation links connecting these countries (see Accessibility). All of thecountries in the developed world are equipped with the latest in computertechnology, modern industrial capability, and advanced marketing mechanismsto ensure their economic success.

Cultural convergence is evident at the global level in the vast belt of manu-facturing regions that reaches from North America through Europe to East


41

84,000 � 1,000CDR � � 14

6,000,000

Asia. The economic activities within this highly productive belt have devel-oped industries and business systems to gain the greatest economic advantage.This is the core region in the core-periphery model, the spatial structure of aneconomic system that includes unequal development. As communication andtransportation systems spread to other regions of the world, cultural conver-gence acts to spread some economic aspects of the core outward. For example,a number of countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia are producing crudesteel and taking part in industrial and manufacturing activities as the globaliza-tion of economic activity expands. However, a significant development gappersists between the core and the periphery. Countries in the periphery do not,as a rule, have the wealth to develop the complete set of economic attributesseen in the core. As such, there are limits to the effectiveness of cultural con-vergence in closing the core-periphery gap.

Suggested Readings: Brian Berry et al., The Global Economy in Transition, Upper Saddle River,N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997; John Dickenson, Geography of the Third World, 2nd ed., New York:Routledge, 1996.


Cultural ecology. Perhaps the most basic and enduring theme in the develop-ment of geographic thought has been the consideration of human interactionwith the physical environment, which is called cultural ecology. Examples ofthis focus are found in the earliest of Greek writings. The ancient Greek histo-rian Herodotus, for instance, expressed concern about soil erosion in Athensresulting from the expansion of agriculture. The English geographer Halford J.Mackinder proposed in 1887 that geography become the science whose mainfunction is the study of human interaction with the local environment. Theterm cultural ecology, proposed by geographer Harlan Barrows in the 1940s, ad-dresses this important interplay and sets it in the modern era. Barrows notedthat human responses to the environment reflect the specific composition ofthe culture group involved. Cultures steeped in technological expertise and ad-vanced engineering capabilities will be able to exert much greater influence ontheir environment than culture groups without these powerful attributes.

In addition to the broad confines of human environment interaction em-braced by cultural ecology, the concept also includes consideration of envi-ronmental perception and use of the environment. The latter focus has beenthe subject of controversy on many occasions, especially in high-technologycultures. Environmental modifications can have both positive and negativeoutcomes. The transformation of the North American interior basis to vastagricultural fields has provided much-needed food worldwide; yet, vastamounts of topsoil are lost every year to erosion and precipitation runoff.Dams created to develop hydroelectric power and water reserves for irrigationhave also flooded great expanses of scenic grandeur and, in the Pacific North-west, upset the annual migration of salmon upriver to their breeding areas.

Cultural diffusion

42

Cultural ecology is opposite to the concept of environmental determinism,an uncompromising notion in geography early in the twentieth century. It doesinclude many of the notions found in Paul Vidal de la Blache’s concept of pos-sibilism.

Suggested Readings: Andrew Goudie, The Earth Transformed: An Introduction to Human Im-

pacts on the Environment, Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1997; Robert M. Netting, Cultural Ecology,

2nd ed., Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1996.

Cultural geography. A systematic subfield of human geography, cultural geog-raphy deals with spatial variations in language, economic systems, governmen-tal forms, relation, perceptions of environment, and a myriad of other culturalexpressions. Cultural geography uses a synthesizing approach through studyingthe close relationship between culture and the physical environment (see Cul-tural ecology). Cultural geographers believe that aspects of a culture cannot befully understood without reference to the environment in which it is found. Assuch, cultural geographers include terrain analysis, climate, vegetation, soil,and animal life because these factors have an impact on, and help to explain,cultural patterns.

Cultural geography had its formal origins with Carl Sauer, a twentieth-century American geographer who emphasized direct field observation ofcultural responses to the environment as imprinted on the landscape. For ex-ample, food preferences reflect a cultural relationship to the environment. Insouthern China the environment allows for double-cropping of rice, but innorthern China wheat prevails as the primary grain. Settlement patterns,building types, and building materials also interest the cultural geographer,especially the way these attributes differ among culture groups. For example,the township and range system of land division extensively used in theUnited States differs radically from the long lot system used by the French.

Suggested Readings: William Norton, Explorations in the Understanding of Landscape: A Cul-

tural Geography, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1989; Web site for the Cultural Geography

Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers, www.geocities.com/Athens/5802/

cgsg.html.

Cultural integration. The basic tenet of both cultural ecology and cultural ge-

ography is the integration of cultural elements and the physical environmentin which that culture is found. This holistic view of human–environment in-teraction is an enduring and basic theme in geography. Cultural integrationdeals with another holistic approach: the contention that culture itself is an in-tegrated and synthesized dynamic whole. Further, culture operates as a system:a change in one aspect of a culture will bring about changes in other aspects ofthe culture and, to a certain degree, in the culture itself. The concept of cul-tural integration addresses these complex dynamics.

For example, two dissimilar culture groups are found along the border be-tween the United States and Mexico. It is not surprising to find that differ-


43

ences exist in agricultural practices and the kinds of food products grown ineach country. Yet, with greater interaction between these two countries, thefoods of each have found their way into the cultural domain of the other. Theinteraction is so intense in recent decades that a new region has developedalong the 1,300-mile border, a region that is truly a combination of both cul-tures. Even the unofficial language spoken there, “Spanglish,” attests to thechange.

Industrial development in Japan, begun in earnest following the MeijiRestoration in 1868 and reconstituted after the end of World War II in 1945,brought far-reaching changes in Japan’s culture. Its global reach in the eco-nomic realm, highlighted by the production of high-value-added goods rangingfrom cameras and computers to automobiles and giant crude oil tankers,brought Japan into virtually every region of the world.

Cultural integration is also apparent in the realm of language. For example,English has supplanted French as the language of diplomacy throughout theworld. All countries, it seems, are insisting that their citizenry become versedin English. As a result, the United States has deemphasized the need for its cit-izens to become bilingual.

During the recent conflict in Afghanistan following the destruction of theWorld Trade Centers and damage to the Pentagon, a hurried call went out fromthe federal government for speakers of Arabic to help in translation and com-munication work. It was clear that there were simply too few such linguists inthe United States. Further, within weeks following the military engagement,colleges and universities were reporting greatly increased student demand forcourses on Middle Eastern languages and culture.

Suggested Readings: Kenneth E. Foote et al., Re-reading Cultural Geography, Austin: Univer-sity of Texas Press, 1994; various issues of Ekumene: A Geographical Journal of Environment, Cul-

ture, Meaning, first published in 1994.

Cultural landscape. Tokyo Tower, the Chicago skyline, a Wisconsin dairyfarm, the market center in Timbuktu, and an Inuit igloo all have one thing incommon: each one is part of a cultural landscape. Wherever a culture group hasmodified its environmental setting, a cultural landscape results. These physicalmanifestations of human presence have been an important area of investiga-tion within cultural geography.

Examples of cultural landscapes are endless and of great variety. The practiceof terracing in Asian countries to maximize agricultural production on landswith high gradient is a particularly dramatic example of cultural landscape.Equally impressive, though quite different, are the vast and expansive wheatfields in the great plains of the United States and Canada. This region has beencharacterized as the breadbasket to the world. Yet, during the westward move-ment in the nineteenth century, it was a region initially avoided for agricul-tural pursuits. Called the Great American Desert by early explorers, the regiondid not become important until the steel plow was invented, an agricultural

Cultural landscape

44

implement strong enough to break through the hard surface of the soil andopen it for agriculture.

The creation of cultural landscapes can take time. In Europe, over severalcenturies, the gradual clearing of the forests for agriculture resulted in an ex-pansive cultural landscape. Intensive agricultural activity along the lower NileRiver in Egypt presents a cultural landscape in stark contrast to both the Euro-pean plain and the interior basin in North America. A cultural landscape isalso produced when a transportation line is built. Countries in the developedworld have dense networks of surface transportation, such as railroads and in-terstate and local highways. Places in the developing world are much less effi-ciently connected because of a paucity of surface links. Both are, nonetheless,examples of cultural landscapes.

The New York City skyline is perhaps the most famous urban image in theworld. On September 11, 2001, that skyline was tragically altered. Withinweeks, bombing commenced on military targets throughout Afghanistan. Ineach place, the cultural landscape was radically changed. The massive destruc-tion of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945, during World War II,are two pointed examples of horrific change in the cultural landscape.

Suggested Readings: Andrew Goudie, The Human Impact on the Natural Environment, NewYork: Blackwell, 1999; I. G. Simmons, Changing the Face of the Earth: Culture, Environment, His-

tory, 2nd ed., Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1995.

Culture hearth. Culture hearths were the areas in which agriculture and tech-nology originated. By the end of the Neolithic period (New Stone Age), whichspanned the period from 8000 to 3500 B.C., a number of highly productive andwell-organized centers of culture had emerged. Urbanization had begun; agri-cultural activities, reflective of each physical setting, were well established; anddistinct holistic cultural integration was established. In time, many of thetechnological and cultural attributes developed in these culture hearths beganto diffuse outward and were incorporated by other groups of people. These cen-ters of civilization provided an important impetus to the growth and spread ofcultural traits throughout the world over time.

The culture hearths were similar in their organization and activities but notidentical. Common to all of them, however, was a well-developed agriculturalsystem. It is generally accepted that a viable urban system could not haveemerged without the presence of a sound agricultural base.

Major culture hearths began in Middle America, the Andes Mountains,West Africa, the Near East, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, North China, andSoutheast Asia. Three of the culture hearths emerged before 10,000 B.C.: thosein the Near East, the Nile Valley, and Europe. The latest arrival was that of theIndus Valley, about 3500 B.C. Ironically, this culture hearth did not last beyond1500 B.C. Its cities were abandoned as a result of a severe decline in the agri-cultural sector. Climate research indicates the presence of a long-term droughtin the Indus Valley that led to the demise of this center. The culture hearth in

Culture hearth

45

East Asia, on the other hand, holds the record for having the longest uninter-rupted history of agricultural activity. Emerging about 7000 B.C. with the culti-vation of rice and other crops, East Asian agriculture continues to this day andis central to one of China’s most populous regions. The culture hearth began atthe junction of the Huang and Wei Rivers in northern China. In time, the re-gion expanded to include the North China plain on both sides of the lowerthird of the Huang. Very fertile soils coming from both alluvial deposits andwind-borne loess from the northwestern deserts have made this region excep-tionally productive. One-fifth of the population of China lives there.

Suggested Readings: Rick Gore, “The Most Ancient Americans,” National Geographic 192(October 1997): 92–99; Richard S. McLeish, The Origins of Agriculture and Settled Life, Norman:University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

Culture hearth

46

D

47

Darwin, Charles (1809–1882). Widely rec-ognized as the primary advocate of evolution,English naturalist Charles Darwin proved tohave a profound influence on geography aswell. Darwin sought explanations for the im-mense diversity found in organic life on earth.His research centered on identifying the pro-cesses of change in nature that ultimately pro-duced organic change.

Darwin was influenced by work on popula-tion by English economist Thomas RobertMalthus a half century earlier. Malthus con-tended that a true struggle for existence wouldresult from rapid growth of human populationand the inability of agriculturalists to providefood in volume sufficient to satisfy rising de-mand. Darwin considered Malthus’s notion ofstruggle for existence as a key concept in hisevolving search for the processes of natural se-lection, a cornerstone of evolutionary theory.

German naturalist Alexander von Hum-boldt (1769–1859) and his writings on thetropical regions also influenced Darwin. VonHumboldt’s descriptions of varied plant and animal life provided further evi-dence for Darwin to support his work on organic diversity. Darwin’s own trav-

Charles Darwin. Source: National Library of Medicine.

els to the Galápagos Islands in the South Pacific further convinced him thathis theory of evolution through natural selection was correct.

In 1859, Darwin published his highly influential book, The Origin of Species,a work that had a profound influence in virtually every sector of Western soci-ety. In the field of geography, Darwin’s ideas were applied to landforms and thecycle of erosion, which brought about change through time; to soils, where theidea of transformation from young to mature farms was advanced; and to socie-tal settings, where the notion of survival of the fittest eventually resulted in theconcept of environmental determinism.

Darwin was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in England in1838. This honor was primarily in recognition of his extensive travels; at thatearly date his eventual contributions to the discipline of geography were notyet apparent.

Suggested Readings: P. T. Bowler, Evolution: The History of an Idea, Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1984; D. R. Stoddart, “Darwin’s Impact on Geography,” Annals of the Associa-

tion of American Geographers, vol. 56 (1966).

Davis, William Morris (1850–1934). Considered by many in the field to bethe father of geography in the United States, William Morris Davis was first ap-

pointed to the Department of Geologyand Geography at Harvard University in1878. He became professor of physicalgeography in 1890 at Harvard. Davis be-came a prominent scholar of geomor-phology, the study of surface features onthe earth and how they were formed.

Davis is especially remembered for hisuse of an organic analogy to describe theerosion cycle in a landscape: a river val-ley, for instance, will change from a stageof youth to one of maturity and finallyold age. Davis had a profound influenceon British geomorphology, although hisorganic analogy to landscape change wasrejected by Russian geographers.

Davis was a keen observer of the land-scape, and his fieldwork, especially hisdetailed ink drawings of surface features,was first rate. He provided the basis ofphysical geography in the United Statesand Britain that held until the 1940s.

Geographic content, Davis claimed,was to be found in the relationship be-tween physical geography (the control-

Davis, William Morris

48

William Morris Davis. Source: CORBIS.

ling agent) and human responses. In this view, Davis was linked to the conceptpresented earlier by the nineteenth-century English naturalist Charles Dar-win, and he was attempting to develop a conceptual base to include humanswithin the landscape instead of separate from it. A number of prominent geog-raphers of the time took issue with this view, and it is ironic that an eventualsplit between physical geography and human geography occurred as a result ofthis disagreement.

In 1889, Davis adopted his erosion cycle model for use by teachers in ele-mentary and secondary schools. Davis was also instrumental in the formationof the Association of American Geographers, the most influential professionalsociety in the discipline. He formed the group in 1904 and the following yearwas elected to the first of three terms as its president.

Suggested Readings: Geoffrey J. Martin and Preston E. James, All Possible Worlds: A History of

Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993; Tim Unwin, The Place of Geog-

raphy, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992.

Deforestation. The great continental forests on earth are fast disappearing.The practice of deforestation, or large-scale clearing of trees, has greatly re-duced forest cover in all major regions. For more than 3,000 years humanshave cut down stands of trees to create farmland and to use the wood forbuilding materials and fuel. Virtually all the European region was cleared offorests over a 1,000-year period. In recent years forests have given way to ex-panding metropolitan areas, roads and railroad corridors, and varied industrialactivities.

Removal of forest cover leads to erosion and the loss of fertile topsoil. Ero-sion is particularly serious when it occurs at high elevations. Runoff of addedmaterials can cause flooding at lower levels. For example, Seoul, South Korea,experienced rapid population increases during the early 1960s. The mountainsnear Seoul were stripped of their forest cover primarily for fuel for cooking andheating. The result was mud slides that inundated the city during the rainy sea-son. The problem was serious enough to force the South Korean government tolimit the number of people moving into the city and to begin a reforestationprogram in the affected region.

In China, the removal of large sections of the bamboo forests has led to a se-rious decline in the number of giant pandas. The panda is now an endangeredspecies.

Environmental destruction from deforestation is not new. By the time of thecollapse of the Roman Empire (ca. A.D. 476), some previously productive agri-cultural areas had become useless as a result of deforestation and subsequenterosion.

Much later, rapid clearing of the vast white-pine forests in the United Statesduring the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was especially devastating.From Maine to Minnesota, clear-cutting of the tall pines continued until theforests were essentially gone. Significant conservation efforts were not begun

Deforestation

49

until the forestry industry was operating in the far western states of Washing-ton, Oregon, and California. At risk in recent years are the old-growth standsof redwood in the western United States. Environmentalists suggest that theold-growth forests, with their 1,000-year-old trees, could be completely elimi-nated during the twenty-first century.

The most-dramatic losses through deforestation are occurring in the equato-rial regions. The vast tropical rain forests of Asia, Africa, and Latin Americahave been cleared at alarming rates in recent decades. More than half the trop-ical rain forest cover has been eliminated; the African stands have diminishedby more than 70 percent. Forests are being cleared to create grazing and agri-cultural land.

A number of concerns have been raised as a result of the demise of thetropical rain forests. First, the great forests act as absorbers of carbon in the at-mosphere and emitters of oxygen. As trees are cut down, the important carbon-oxygen exchange is upset. Second, significant climatic changes are possiblethrough declines in the amount of moisture originating in the tropical rainforests and carried to higher latitudes through atmospheric circulation. Third,the loss of the tropical rain forest results in the extinction of plants with po-tentially valuable medicinal properties. It is estimated that 60,000 plant vari-eties in the tropical rain forests will be lost by the middle of the twenty-firstcentury.

Suggested Readings: David A. Castillon, Conservation of Natural Resources: A Management

Approach, 2nd ed., Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1997; Kenton Miller and Laura Tangley,Trees of Life: Saving Tropical Forests and Their Biological Wealth, Washington, D.C.: World Re-sources Institute, 1991.

Deindustrialization. During the second half of the twentieth century, urbanindustrialized regions saw manufacturing jobs decline in great numbers andolder, outmoded industrial plants taken out of production. This process isknown as deindustrialization and is explained by a number of factors. Amongthem are increasing labor and energy costs in the industrialized countries,more-efficient plants in other regions, the reduction of transportation coststhat allows basic commodities such as crude steel to be shipped from othercountries, and the rise of transnational corporations that have establishedmanufacturing plants in the developing world.

Manufacturing jobs lost through deindustrialization have been replaced byjobs in the service sector. Old steel mills and foundries have given way to re-search parks, shopping centers, and office buildings. This transformation injob profiles brought concomitant problems. Workers in industry and manufac-turing were generally well paid, and the transition to lower-paid entry-leveljobs in the service sector produced great hardship. For example, a skilled steel-worker would not be prepared to immediately step into a position requiringextensive training in computer maintenance. Yet, the transition to a predom-inantly service sector economy is continuing and is irreversible. By the year

Deindustrialization

50

2000, only 20 percent of all jobs in the United States were in manufacturingand extractive industries, whereas in 1850 these two categories had accountedfor nearly 85 percent of U.S. jobs. The United States, Canada, western Eu-rope, Japan, and Australia have seen a dramatic shift from primary reliance onmanufacturing to a service-sector economic base. This transition, in which in-dustrialization is a key factor, has produced in those countries a postindustrialeconomy.

Suggested Readings: P. W. Daniels, The Global Economy in Transition, White Plains, N.Y.:Longman, 1996; Ron Martin and Robert Rowthorn, eds., The Geography of Deindustrialization,

Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Sheridan House, 1986.

Demographic transition. The demographic transition model uses crudebirthrate and crude death rate to illustrate changes in the historical trends ofpopulation for a country orregion. The model was firstused for England and Walesover the period 1750–1950.During this 200-year period,the population doubled.

The general model of dem-ographic transition is dividedinto four stages. In Stage 1,both the crude birthrate andthe crude death rate arehigh in value (nearly 40 per1,000) and fluctuating. Highbirthrates were offset by highdeath rates. This stage wasprevalent throughout historyuntil about the mid-1800s,when Stage 2 became thenorm.

Stage 2 in the model occurs when death rates drop well below birthrates.Significant and steady declines in the death rate occurred during the IndustrialRevolution, which began in the late 1800s, through advances in medical tech-nology. Birthrates in Stage 2 either remain high or decline less rapidly thandeath rates. With birthrates high and death rates declining, the difference be-tween the two widens. The difference, stated as a percentage, is the rate of nat-ural increase. It is clear that the higher the rate of natural increase, the greaterthe overall increase in total population (except for gains or losses due to migra-tion).

In Stage 3, both the birth- and death rates are declining. The explanationfor lowering birthrates is not as straightforward as that for declining deathrates. Initially in Stage 3, birthrates remain high, indicative of social traditions


51

Demographic transition. Source: Brian Goodall, The Penguin Dictionary of

Human Geography (Penguin Books, 1987). Copyright Brian Goodall, 1987.Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.

that favor large families, but this growth gradually slows. For example, as theIndustrial Revolution continued, more families moved into cities, where hous-ing was less amenable to large families. In time the urban lifestyle broughtchanges, and family size declined from earlier higher numbers seen in ruralareas. During Stage 3, population growth continues but not as rapidly as it didin Stage 2.

Stage 4 is entered when birth- and death rates are again close in value. Pop-ulation growth rates are very low or even show slight declines. Some Europeancountries have, in fact, entered what could be a new stage in the demographictransition: death rates have exceeded birthrates for short periods of time. TheEuropean countries were the first to complete the demographic transition, andthe average longevity of their people continues to increase. An older popula-tion will have more deaths and fewer births. Russia, for example, experiencedunusually high death rates through the late 1980s into the first years of thetwenty-first century. Russia is the first industrialized country to have what ap-pears to be a steady increase in death rates.

Countries in the developed world are alone in completing the demographictransition. The developing world is still seeing high rates of natural increasebecause most countries are still in either Stage 2 or Stage 3 of the demographictransition. As long as death rates are significantly lower than birthrates in thehighly populated developing world, the so-called population explosion willcontinue.

Suggested Readings: Joseph A. McFalls Jr., “Population: A Lively Introduction,” Population

Bulletin, vol. 53, no. 3 (1998); Jennifer D. Mitchell, “Before the Next Doubling,” World Watch,

January–February 1998, 20–27.

Density gradient. Density gradient is the rate at which any land use or func-tion declines with increasing distance from a center point. Von Thunen’s landuse model, developed in the early 1800s by German economist Johann Hein-rich von Thunen, illustrates the density gradient notion: activities at and nearthe center of the isolated state are intensive and densely packed; with increas-ing distance from the center, activities become more extensive and reflectlower densities.

Cities in the early twentieth century had high densities of population nearthe center. Densities declined with distance from the center. The suburbanfringe had the lowest densities of population.

The density gradient is a spatial model of distance decay, the concept thatany process will decline in intensity with increasing distance from a center. Inrecent decades there have been changes in density gradients within urbanareas. With the increase of suburbanization and improved transportation fromurban centers to the suburbs, greater numbers of people have moved to thefringes. With increases in suburban population have come declines in thenumber of people living near urban centers. This is partly due to the aban-donment of old apartment buildings and the relocation of business activities

Density gradient

52

to the suburbs. As a result of these changes, the density gradient has becomemore shallow.

Suggested Readings: Paul L. Knox, ed., The Restless Urban Landscape, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice Hall, 1993; William C. Wheaton, “Land Use and Density in Cities with Congestion,”Journal of Urban Economics, vol. 43 (1998).

Dependency ratio. The cohort identified as active workers in any country isgenerally taken to be those aged 15–64. Individuals younger or older than theworker group are considered dependent on them. The dependency ratio indi-cates the relationship between these two groups.

The population pyramid for any country provides a graphic glimpse of its de-pendency ratio. For instance, a developing country will have a large percentageof its population in the 0–14 age group and a small number of people over 64years of age. On the other hand, a developed country having completed thedemographic transition will have a smaller percentage of its population in the0–14 group and a large and growing number of people age 65 and above. Inboth cases, the workforce, those aged 15–64, will provide for the younger andolder members of the population.

Japan provides a good example of problems faced by a country that has com-pleted the demographic transition and has seen increases in both life ex-pectancy and average age of the population. In 1970, the population 65 yearsand older in Japan was 8 percent, whereas the population of those youngerthan 15 was 22 percent. By 2000, those 65 and above accounted for 20 percentof the population, and the under-15 cohort was 17 percent.

The resulting dependency ratios reveal significant changes over that 30-yearperiod. The mathematical form of the expression is as follows:

The resulting figures indicate that every 100 workers supported 43 others in1970 and 59 others in 2000. The increase in the number to be supported in

Dependency ratio

53

(Percent under 15) � (Percent over 64)100 � dependency ratio*

Percent in workforce

for 1970 in Japan:

22 � 8� .43 100 � 43*

70

for 2000 in Japan:

17 � 20� .59 100 � 59*

63

2000 is attributed to the much larger population aged 65 and above. Note thatthe percentage under age 15 declined from 1970 to 2000.

An aging population will require adjustment in health care, retirement op-tions, and possibly will result in shortages in the workforce. In developingcountries that have not completed the demographic transition, the biggest bur-den is caring for those in the 0–14 age group. It is expected that this age cohortwill slowly decline in overall percentage as policies are enacted to curtail highpopulation growth.

Suggested Readings: Lester R. Brown et al., Beyond Malthus: Nineteen Dimensions of the Popu-

lation Challenge, New York: W. W. Norton, 1999; United Nations Population Fund, The State of

World Population, United Nations, annual.

Dependency theory. Dependency theory contends that colonial entities estab-lished during the period of colonialism—from about 1500 to 1800 in the West-ern Hemisphere and during the late 1800s in Africa—remained dependent onthe developed world even after gaining their independence and becoming sov-ereign states. During the period of colonialism, an imbalance emerged in whichEuropean occupiers gained a supreme economic advantage over their colonies,which supplied raw materials and commodities for European manufacturers.The period of colonialism marked the beginning of the core-periphery rela-tionship that currently exists.

Dependency theory advocates suggest that the basis for the dependence isthe system of inequitable trade relationships that favor the developed coun-tries. In the absence of the European powers that dictated the trade arrange-ments during colonial rule, transnational corporations have entered the newlyformed countries to continue the pattern of economic imbalances.

Dependency theory is related to Wallerstein’s world-system analysis, de-veloped by American social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein in the 1960s and1970s, which states, in part, that the core countries are the drivers of theglobal economic system and the periphery supports the core by providing rawmaterials, commodities, labor supply, and a market for goods and services em-anating from the core. In the core-periphery model, any economic gain madeby the periphery is offset by greater gains for the core. In short, the system isself-perpetuating, and the economic gap between the core and the peripherywill continue to widen.

The somber reality of the dependency theory with its attendant core-periphery basis can be compared with the more optimistic (although greatlydiscredited) model of economic development proposed by American economichistorian Walter W. Rostow in 1960. Rostow suggested that all developingcountries would proceed through five stages of economic development, fromtraditional society to an age of mass consumption. Economic development ex-perience in the developing world since Rostow’s writings has not proven to fol-low his model.

Suggested Readings: Richard Peet, Theories of Development, New York: Guilford Press, 1999;The World Bank, The World Development Report, New York: Oxford University Press, annual.

Dependency theory

54

Desertification. The degradation of semiarid lands through either climatechange or increasing human use (or both) is termed desertification. All conti-nents lying in the desert latitudinal belts, 30 degrees north and 30 degreessouth of the equator, have been affected by desert advance.

Of particular significance in this regard is the semiarid region of the Sahel,bordering the southern margin of the Sahara Desert in Africa. From 1980 on-ward, desert conditions have moved into the Sahel at a rate of advance averag-ing four miles per year. Actual advance of the desert has varied in individualyears. When rainfall is higher, the advance will be slowed or even temporarilyreversed. However, the long-term trend in the Sahel strongly suggests contin-ued desertification. Much of the natural vegetation has been cleared for agri-culture and the grazing of animals. Trees have been felled for fuel wood andbuilding materials. Grazing has been particularly hard on the land because ofthe severe packing of the soil by animal hooves. Rain falling on hardened andpacked soil will not soak into the ground but instead flows to lower elevations.The resulting soil is drier and less able to support new plant growth, and thesubsurface water table is lowered, making well water less accessible.

Population pressures have exacerbated desertification in the Sahel. Increasesin population have led to more demands on the land for grazing and agricul-ture. Environmental experts predict that more than 40 percent of Africa’s non-desert land will be lost to desertification if present trends continue.

Suggested Readings: Mick Hulme and Mick Kelly, “Desertification and Climate Change,”Environment, vol. 35 (1993); Nick Middleton and David Thomas, World Atlas of Desertification,

2nd ed., United Nations Development Programme, London: Edward Arnold, 1997.

Devolution. Devolution, as applied to sovereign states, is the granting of pow-ers, and possibly autonomy, to subgroups within the states. Most of the sover-eign states in the world include a number of distinct ethnic groups within theirindividual borders. This multicultural characteristic does not usually constitutea threat to the unified integrity of the country. But at times, and for particularreasons, pressures may be exerted by one or more of the internal ethnic groupsas they destabilize the system and demand greater recognition. The most ex-treme demand is to separate from the country and become a separate sovereignstate. Such centrifugal, or separating, forces are found in a number of worldcenters.

Quebec’s separatist movement over the past several years is a pointed exam-ple of devolution. The predominately French-speaking Quebecois seem deter-mined to separate from English Canada because of purported inequitabletreatment by the national government. The fact that Quebec is home to virtu-ally all of Canada’s French speakers gives added strength to the devolution ef-fort. If the French were spread about the whole of Canada, the movementcould not have been nearly as effective.

A number of moves toward devolution are occurring in European countries.Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are trying to break free from the rule ofGreat Britain. The Basques and Catalans in Spain have initiated efforts leading

Devolution

55

to separation. In Belgium, the Flemish and Walloon culture groups have spo-ken out, demanding greater recognition.

In the 1990s Czechoslovakia was peacefully divided into the Czech Republicand Slovakia, new sovereign states. The 1990s also witnessed turmoil as Yu-goslavia disintegrated and several new countries emerged. Yugoslavia was heldtogether before its devolution by the strong hand of Marshal Josip Tito and thecountry’s position as a satellite of the Soviet Union. With the death of Tito in1980 and the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the voices of ethnic identitybecame stronger, and significant separatist movements—some extremely vio-lent—emerged in force.

Suggested Readings: Brian W. Blouet, “The Political Geography of Europe: 1900–2000,”Journal of Geography, vol. 95 (1996); Allan M. Williams, The European Community: The Contra-

diction of Integration, 2nd ed., Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1994.

Diffusion. The areal spread of ideas, innovations, substances, practices, enter-prises, styles, religions, or organized sports from a point of origin is generallyknown as diffusion. The study of diffusion in its various forms is an importantaspect of human geography. One of the pioneers in the field and its principalcontributor is Torsten Hagerstrand, a twentieth-century Swedish geographerwho developed models and quantitative techniques for application in diffusionstudies.

There are two general forms of diffusion: expansion diffusion and relocationdiffusion. In expansion diffusion, ideas or substances spread from a point of ori-gin throughout adjacent areas. The spread of hybrid corn from its center in Illi-nois outward to adjacent corn-growing states is an example of expansiondiffusion. Relocation diffusion is exemplified in the move of European religionsto North America during the colonial period.

A number of diffusions involved a combination of relocation and expansionforms. For example, Dutch elm disease emanated from a shipment of Europeanwood to Ohio in the 1930s. The wood contained a beetle that would burrowinto the bark of elm trees. The tree’s defense response was to shut down its owncirculation in that place. Eventually its branches would wither and the treewould be removed in order to avoid spreading the disease to other trees. By1970, Dutch elm disease had spread as far west as Minnesota. The relocationtook place in the shipment of wood to Ohio; the expansion took the form of aspread from tree to tree outward from Ohio.

Suggested Readings: Fred B. Kniffen, “Cultural Diffusion and Landscapes: Selection by FredB. Kniffen,” Geoscience and Man, vol. 27 (1990); Richard K. Ormrod, “Adaptation and CulturalDiffusion,” Journal of Geography, vol. 91 (1992).

Diffusion barrier. Any condition that interrupts or prohibits the diffusionprocess is considered a diffusion barrier. Barriers are found in the physical envi-ronment. For example, the diffusion of wheat growing in the Great Plainseventually met physical barriers in Canada (where temperatures were too low),the Rocky Mountains, and the arid Southwest. The spread of the boll weevil

Diffusion

56

through the cotton fields in the southeastern United States halted at the edgeof the cotton-growing region.

Diffusion barriers can also be cultural in nature. An innovation or idea thatis spreading may encounter a culture group that does not accept it. Nonaccep-tance of the innovation or idea has been characterized as an absorbing barrier.That is, instead of accepting the innovation or idea and allowing the diffusionprocess to continue, the innovation or idea is said to have been absorbed or, ina sense, lost to further diffusion, at least in the area of absorption.

The concept of friction of distance (see Distance decay) is also consideredto be a form of diffusion barrier. It is generally true that distance itself candeter or delay the transfer of ideas, people, substances, and so forth, and thegreater the distance, the lower will be the degree of transfer. For example, sev-eral hundred years passed before the process of papermaking made its way fromChina to Europe.

Suggested Readings: Lawrence A. Brown, Innovation Diffusion: A New Perspective, New York:Methuen, 1981; R. J. Johnston et al., The Dictionary of Human Geography, Oxford, U.K.: BasilBlackwell, 2000.

Distance decay. The concept of distance decay states that spatial interactionwill diminish with increased distance. For example, people will operate primar-ily within their daily activity space and will travel outside that area much lessfrequently. For a family living in St. Louis, a trip to visit relatives in Denver willcertainly not occur weekly or perhaps even monthly. This diminishment ofspatial interaction has a very practical basis: extensive trips take more time andare costly. The trip from St. Louis to Denver, for instance, would have to beplanned carefully in order to adjust the normal sequence of daily and weeklyactivities (school and work schedules) within the family’s activity space.

The models developed by nineteenth-century German economist JohannHeinrich von Thunen and twentieth-century German economic geographerWalter Christaller both consider the effect of distance on spatial interaction.Work by geographers during the Quantitative Revolution focused closely onthe effects of distance. Models were developed to quantify the degree of spatialinteraction between places as distance increased. Practical outcomes of thesestudies include estimations of migration patterns from one area to another andtraffic flows between urban areas, as well as predictions of shopping activity atcompeting centers. See also Von Thunen’s land use model and Christaller’scentral place theory.

Suggested Readings: Paul Boyle and Keith Halfacre, Migration into Rural Areas: Theories and

Issues, London: John Wiley & Sons, 1998; W. Tobler, “A Computer Movie,” Economic Geogra-

phy, vol. 46 (1970).

Double-cropping. A common agricultural practice in the warmer Asian re-gions, double-cropping is the growing of two crops on the same land within thesame year. In southern China and on the island of Kyushu in Japan, double-cropping of paddy rice is common. Not only must the temperature be warm

Double-cropping

57

enough throughout the two growing periods, but sufficient water is necessaryfor paddy growth.

The normal practice involves the planting of seedbeds early in the springand then the transplanting of the new rice shoots into the paddies at the opti-mum time. The work is labor intensive, because each new rice shoot must becarefully extracted from the seedbed and planted in the paddy by hand. Beforethe first rice crop is harvested, the second seedbed is planted. Following theharvesting of the first paddy crop, the second is quickly planted in time to en-sure maturing of the rice before the end of the growing season in November.The Chinese and the Japanese are recognized world leaders in double-croppingagricultural techniques.

In regions where temperatures are suitable for double-cropping but wateravailability is not sufficient for a second paddy rice crop, other grains, such aswheat and barley, are planted. In Iraq, a flood-control depression between theTigris and the Euphrates Rivers provides water for double-cropping in yearswhen the two rivers have swelled with excess water. Water is released in latesummer from the catchment basin, allowing flow to agricultural fields for a sec-ond crop.

Double-cropping is an indication that (1) population numbers are high, and(2) there is not enough agricultural land to produce sufficient food in one crop.Both China and Japan fit this description. Less than 15 percent of total landarea in both countries is ideally suitable for agriculture, and the populationdensity of each country is high.

Suggested Readings: Gregory G. Knapp, Chinese Landscapes: The Village as Place, Honolulu:University of Hawaii Press, 1992; Michael Smitka, Agricultural Growth and Japanese Economic

Development, New York: Guilford Press, 1998.

Doubling time. The rate of natural increase (RNI) for any area for which pop-ulation data are available (state, country, region, world) can be used to deter-mine the time necessary for that population to double, which is known asdoubling time. Very close approximations are possible using a simple arith-metic operation: doubling time in years is equal to the integer value 70 dividedby the RNI. For example, a 1 percent RNI results in a doubling of the popula-tion in 70 years (70/1). A 2 percent RNI yields a doubling in 35 years (70/2). Adoubling in 140 years will result from an RNI of 0.5 percent.

A glance at the RNIs for countries in the developing world helps to explainwhy their populations are growing so rapidly. RNIs of 3.0 percent or higher arenot uncommon. Countries in Africa, the Middle East, and most of Latin Amer-ica will most certainly double in the next 20–25 years. On the other hand,countries in North America, Europe, and Japan, have completed the demo-graphic transition, and their populations are aging. As such, their RNIs arebelow 1 percent and their doubling times are in the hundreds of years. In fact,some European countries have negative RNIs. For instance, in 1998 Russia’sRNI was –0.5 percent, meaning that its population (not including net migra-

Doubling time

58

tion) was declining. In cases of this type, it is clear that doubling time is not ap-plicable.

Consider a country with a high RNI and a large population. In 1998, India’sRNI was 1.9 percent, and its population was close to 990 million. The doublingtime for India is 70/1.9 = 37 years. So, if the RNI stays constant until 2035,India’s population will swell to 1,980 million. Another doubling to 3,960 mil-lion would occur in 2970. Is this likely to happen? Most assuredly not. Dou-bling time is an indicator of population growth but must not be used toestimate the future population of a country. The main reason for this is the factthat RNIs are predicted to decline steadily in future years, a trend that began in1963, when world RNI was 2.2 percent. Since then, world RNI has graduallycome down to about 1.3 percent and is expected to further decline.

Suggested Readings: Alene Gelbard and Mary M. Kent, “World Population Beyond Six Bil-lion,” Population Bulletin, vol. 54 (1999); Nathan Kayfitz and Wilhelm Flinger, World Population

Growth and Aging: Demographic Trends in the Late 20th Century, Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1991.

Doubling time

59

E

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Economic development. In a general sense, the term economic developmentrefers to the processes involved in the growth and refinement of an economicsystem of any form. In economic geography and development studies, the termhas a more specific meaning and applies to regional economic systems, theirparticular attributes, and how they interact at the global level.

There are many ways of characterizing economic development in any coun-try or region. Some of these characteristics are measures of national produc-tion, per capita income, attributes of the labor force, and energy consumption.In addition, the degree of interval regional development, the diversity of itseconomic structure, and the levels of technology within the system may deter-mine the strength of an economic system. Other aspects of an economic sys-tem include the percentage of the workforce engaged in agriculture, thedegree of urbanization in the country or region, and the level of industrial de-velopment.

These characteristics, and others, when accumulated for any country will de-termine its level of economic development. Countries have been placed in thebroad categories of “developed” and “developing.” In the developed category arethe United States, Canada, western European countries, Japan, Australia, andNew Zealand. These countries have completed the demographic transition,have become highly urbanized, and are leading industrial and high-technologycenters. Countries in the developing world have a higher percentage of theirworkforce in agriculture, are not heavily industrialized, and have lower levels ofurbanization. The developing countries that were occupied by European powersduring colonization did not experience full regional development, and many arestill struggling to accomplish this important goal.

The developed-developing theme is the outcome of the core-peripheryrelationship established centuries ago. The North-South line demarcatingthe developed and developing worlds was introduced in 1980 as a means ofdistinguishing the affluent northern countries from the poorer southerncountries.

Suggested Readings: United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report,

United Nations, annual; www.odc.org, Web site for the Overseas Development Council, a pri-vate internation research group with information on economic development.

Economic geography. As the Industrial Revolution continued to strengthenthe economic systems in Europe and the United States in the late 1800s, a se-ries of books and articles appeared on the theme of commercial geography.These early research efforts in what would become economic geography aimedat determining the location of usable resources and understanding the detailsof productive processes globally.

Early in the twentieth century, advocates of the two disciplines—economicsand geography—began asking questions that involved the conceptual bases ofthe other: geographers were entertaining notions raised in economics, andeconomists began to consider the spatial element and the ways this context ef-fected economics. Economic geography was one of the first subdisciplines toemerge in geography. Since that time, economic geography has further splitinto a number of subspecialties: agricultural geography, industrial geography,and even welfare geography.

Economic geography followed closely the major conceptual shifts that oc-curred over time within the discipline. When the shift was made to more-analytical and process-oriented geographical analyses, economic geographyincorporated, and in some cases generated, these new approaches. For exam-ple, economic geographers began to ask why particular economic activitieswere located where they were. Studies of industrial locations incorporatedthemes from economics within the spatial context in order to better under-stand the patterns of economic activity found in the landscape. Further re-finements occurred during the Quantitative Revolution in the form ofregional science and location theory.

Economic geographers have studied regions of concentrated economic activ-ities. Well-known examples are the manufacturing belt in the United Statesand Canada, the Fertile Triangle in the Russian Federation, and the Ruhr in-dustrial corridor in Germany.

Suggested Readings: Dean M. Hanink, Principles and Applications of Economic Geography, NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1997; Edward J. Malecki, “The Geography of High Technology,”Focus, vol. 35 (1985).

Ecosystem. The living earth comprises tens of thousands of ecological unitsoperating in a self-contained and self-regulating manner. These ecosystems, asthey are called, have achieved the ideal balance in their local topographicaland climatic situations. Ecosystems will maintain themselves over time and

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will change and adapt to reflect alterations in larger systems influencing them.For instance, in recent years the average air temperatures over the ArcticOcean have gradually increased. This change in temperature has resulted inthe diminishment of average ice thickness on the ocean surface.

Ecosystems are also characterized as self-regulating, and their componentsinteract. In the Arctic Ocean example, the ecosystem will regulate itself to re-flect the higher average temperatures and thinning ice conditions. The ice di-minishment is the result of a form of interaction with the altered conditions inthe ecosystem.

Research suggests that the warming of the polar regions is the result ofhuman activity. Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from industrialand automotive emissions is creating a greenhouse effect, a general warming ofthe atmosphere enveloping the planet. This is just one example of many thatillustrate how human activity alters ecosystems. Some alterations are minorand others are quite destructive. The recent dramatic changes in the FloridaEverglades ecosystem are a case in point. For a number of years, water from theEverglades has been diverted for agricultural activities southeast of Lake Okee-chobee, Florida, and the extensive urban settlements along Florida’s AtlanticCoast. Diversion of water from the Everglades has altered its conditionsgreatly; it is no longer a “river of grass,” as it was once known. As a result ofwater diminishment in the Everglades, other natural entities have been af-fected. Among them are the saw grass, woody vegetation, and animal life thathad found a niche in the Everglades.

With world population continuing to increase and economic activity ex-panding, as it must, there will be more alterations to ecosystems in the fu-ture.

Suggested Readings: Robert G. Bailey, Ecoregions: The Ecosystem Geography of the Oceans and

Continents, New York: Springer Verlag, 1998; Web site of the North American Association ofEnvironmental Education (NAAEE), www.eelink.net. (The focus of EE-Link is environmentaleducation; it is aimed at teachers of K–12 students.)

Ecumene. The word ecumene, from the Greek, means “to inhabit.” Ecumene isa term used in contemporary geography to identify that part of the earth’s sur-face that is permanently settled. A quick view of a world map of populationdensity will reveal the uneven distribution of people on the earth’s surface.Some areas are densely populated, and others are essentially devoid of signifi-cant numbers of people. Over time, the area of the ecumene has expanded.When the major culture hearths emerged, the settled areas on earth were lim-ited. With population increase and migration of people to other areas, the ec-umene began to expand. At the time of the Roman Empire, the knownecumene included parts of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and areas inAsia. In time, more of the European area received permanent settlers. With theopening of the Western Hemisphere to settlement during the age of explo-ration, the ecumene further expanded, adding European peoples to the nativepeoples who had long resided on the American continents.

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In modern times, the ecumene is at its largest to date. Settlement has ex-panded into regions where human habitation was previously impossible. Forexample, many desert areas are now settled and productive, primarily throughadvances in technology that have brought industry and irrigation agriculture tohyperarid regions.

Despite expansions of this type, there remain vast areas that are not suitablefor permanent settlement. These areas include much of the Arctic and Antarc-tica, vast areas of northern North America and Siberia, the expansive desertsassociated with the belts of high atmospheric pressure at 30 degrees north andsouth of the equator, and several tropical rain forest regions straddling theequator. These areas are not suitable for permanent settlement because they aretoo cold, too dry, or too wet. Yet, with future advances in technology, someareas now outside the ecumene could be settled. As world population contin-ues to increase and technological breakthroughs continue to be made, expan-sion of the ecumene is likely.

Suggested Readings: Gareth Lewis, “Changing Places in a Rural World: The PopulationTurnaround in Perspective,” Geography: Journal of the Geographical Association, vol. 85 (2000);Brian K. Roberts, Landscapes of Settlement, London: Routledge, 1996.

Edge city. In his 1991 book Edge Cities: Life on the Frontier, journalist Joel Gar-reau introduced the idea of the edge city, an urban complex of varied activitiesand functions that develops in a suburban residential setting. Over the past 20years, edge cities (also called suburban downtowns and urban villages) havesprung up along the transportation beltways circling most metropolitan areasin North America.

Once the home of commuters traveling to the inner city for work and shop-ping, suburbia has added manufacturing centers, office parks, shopping malls,medical centers, and entertainment complexes in clusters along limited-accesstransportation corridors encircling the metropolitan area.

Edge cities tend to be as self-sufficient as possible, containing the functionsand services that were once found only in the inner city. Accessibility is a keyattribute of edge cities. With improved transportation corridors and advancedcommunication systems made available in recent years, a location distant fromthe inner city does not pose a disadvantage for successful business operations.Commuting to and from the edge city is marked by travel along beltways andsegments of interstate highway systems.

Garreau characterized edge cities as having more jobs than bedrooms, sug-gesting the importance of their place in the metropolitan economic system. Anearly precursor of the emerging economic importance of areas on the urban pe-riphery was evident in the 1960 census, which pointed out that for the firsttime in U.S. history, more manufacturing jobs were located in suburbia than inthe inner city. Another of Garreau’s characteristics was the perception thatedge cities had an identity that did not apply to suburbia before their develop-ment.

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Edge cities are not without their own internal problems, however. Problemsof urban sprawl and traffic congestion are becoming more apparent as metro-politan areas, and their edge cities, continue to grow.

Suggested Readings: Joel Garreau, Edge Cities: Life on the Frontier, New York: Doubleday,1991; Susan Hanson, The Geography of Urban Transportation, 2nd ed., New York: Guilford Press,1995.

Electoral geography. On the evening of U.S. national elections, all the majortelevision networks illustrate the voting results on a large map of the UnitedStates. As each state’s election returns come in, the map is changed to reflectthe voting outcome. This event is one example of electoral geography, a disci-pline that looks at the spatial aspects of voting behavior. Experts in politicalgeography can use voting results to analyze election outcomes and determinewhy people in particular areas vote as they do.

There are a number of major attributes that are considered when votingpatterns are scrutinized. Among them are ethnic background, income levels,religious affiliation, education levels, and predictable regional differences.The latter attribute points to some perennial strongholds of political partypreference in the United States.For instance, the western Moun-tain states and the Great Plainsstates lean strongly to the Repub-lican side, whereas the northeast-ern states vote predominatelyDemocratic.

Another aspect of electoral ge-ography is the study of proportionalrepresentation in government. TheHouse of Representatives, for in-stance, has 435 seats established toensure proportional representationbased on population. The stateslargest in population will have thegreatest number of representatives.(A balancing factor in nationalgovernment is seen in the way Sen-ate membership is established: twosenators represent each state, a sys-tem not based on population.)

Following each census, statesmay be required to redraw theircongressional districts to adjust topopulation gains or declines. Con-gressional redistricting efforts are

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The original gerrymander map.

very complex and gain the attention of political geographers. Some resultingcongressional districts are extraordinarily odd in shape and extent. These un-usual outcomes usually result from attempts to ensure that minority members ofthe populace gain fair representation.

There is historical precedent for unusually shaped districts. In 1812, Gover-nor Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts authorized the creation of a district thatsome in government said resembled a salamander. One pundit took the wordsalamander and changed it to gerrymander, incorporating the governor’s lastname. Since that time, the term gerrymandering has been used to refer to thecreation of districts for specific purposes.

Suggested Readings: R. J. Johnston et al., Development in Electoral Geography, New York:Routledge, 1990; John O’Loughlin, “The Identification and Evaluation of Racial Gerrymander-ing,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 72 (1982).

Enclave and exclave. An enclave is territory of a state within and surroundedby a different state. For example, Lesotho is an enclave within South Africaand is an independent entity. San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaveswithin Italy. An enclave may also be correctly referred to as an exclave. Cuetaand Melilla are small enclaves in Morocco. These two places are also consid-ered exclaves of Spain, because in reality they belong to Spain. Interestingly,there is a small enclave on the southeast coast of the Island of Newfoundlandin Canada that belongs to France. Saint Pierre and Miquelon are exclaves ofFrance and enclaves within Canada.

Before German unification, the city of West Berlin was an enclave withinthe German Democratic Republic (East Germany). It was also an exclave ofWest Germany. Following German unification and the uniting of East andWest Berlin in 1990, these terms no longer applied.

The presence of an enclave creates a perforated state, one of the five recog-nized state shapes. Other state shapes include elongated (e.g., Chile), compact(e.g., Zimbabwe), prorupt (e.g., Thailand), and fragmented (e.g., the Philip-pines). In West Africa, the Gambia exists as a narrow land indentation follow-ing the Gambia River into the larger republic of Senegal. The Gambia isreferred to as a pene-enclave.

The presence of enclaves and exclaves can be the source of tension in a re-gion. This is especially true if there are differences in value systems, religion,or political orientation between the enclave and the perforated state. A casein point is the turmoil between Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave within thecountry of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh has a population that is 80 per-cent Armenian Christian, whereas Azerbaijan is primarily Shiite Muslim.Tensions were high between the two groups for decades, but strong control bythe communist regime disallowed any serious uprising. Once the SovietUnion disintegrated in 1991, however, the pressures of nationalism and de-sires for independence resurfaced and fighting broke out. In 1986, Nagorno-Karabakh demanded to be united with neighboring Armenia, lying only 16

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kilometers to the west. It was proposed that a narrow land corridor be estab-lished on Azerbaijani land to make the connection. The response of the Az-eris was to further suppress the Karabakh Armenians. Fighting broke out in1988 and in the end, thousands on both sides were killed or became refugees.In time the conflict abated, and both Armenia and Azerbaijan became inde-pendent states. Nagorno-Karabakh remains an enclave within Azerbaijanand an exclave of Armenia but is free of Azeris.

Suggested Readings: Alexander B. Murphy, “Territorial Policies in Multiethnic States,” Geo-

graphical Review, vol. 79 (1989); Colin H. Williams, Linguistic Minorities, Society, and Territory,

Clevendon, U.K.: Multilingual Matters, 1991.


Environmental awareness. Curtailing lumber operations in the Pacific North-west to save the spotted owl, diverting water in the Rio Grande watershed toensure the safety of the silvery minnow, and the carefully planned explorationfor oil in Colorado’s Canyon of the Ancients National Monument are all ex-amples of environmental awareness. Concern about the environment, espe-cially when a form of economic development is involved, has become animportant human activity. In the United States, environmental awareness hasled to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, an arm ofthe federal government that aims to protect the environment from neglect andharm. In every community throughout the country, prospective economic de-velopment efforts must be preceded by an environmental impact analysis toensure that the planned installation will not cause avoidable injury to the en-vironment.

Environmental awareness is not new, although the degree of concern aboutprotecting the physical fabric of places is perhaps as great as it has ever been.The ancient Greek historian Herodotus expressed concern about the loss ofsoil in agricultural fields in Greece. The conservation movement in the UnitedStates, spearheaded by President Theodore Roosevelt at the turn of the twenti-eth century, was a monumental effort to preserve natural areas for future gener-ations. The creation of the national park system in the United States is tracedto the conservation movement begun by President Roosevelt.

In the 1980s, a dramatic confrontation unfolded between developers andenvironmentalists over proposed expansion of both hydroelectric power de-velopment and water diversion for irrigation from the Tuolumne River inCalifornia. The Tuolumne rises in Yosemite National Park and flows west tothe Central Valley in California, one of the country’s richest agriculturalareas. The economic arguments for further development of the Tuolumnewere compelling: more hydroelectric generation was needed in the growingurban areas and more water was needed to ensure agricultural expansion.Both of these development efforts would produce more jobs in the growingCalifornia economy.

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Environmentalists countered with claims that the pristine canyons and ma-jestic scenery of the Tuolumne gorge had a value that would be lost forever ifanother dam were built. Not only would recreation opportunities be elimi-nated but also a key area of wilderness would be drowned. The Tuolumne con-troversy raged for months before finally being resolved in favor of theenvironmentalists’ position. The decision became a precedent for other pro-posed economic development in the United States. Environmental awarenessis under way in many countries throughout the world.

Suggested Readings: Andrew Goudie, The Earth Transformed: An Introduction to Human Im-

pacts on the Environment, Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1997; I. G. Simmons, Changing the Face

of the Earth: Culture, Environment, History, 2nd ed., Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1996.

Environmental determinism. For two decades at the beginning of the twenti-eth century, the concept of environmental determinism was dominant inAmerican geography, largely through the work of Ellsworth Huntington, aprominent geographer at Yale University. Environmental determinism pro-claims that climate and terrain are the dominant forces in determining culturaldirections. For example, people in the temperate climates of Europe and NorthAmerica would have clear, quick minds, an abundance of creativity, and highlevels of industry because of the bracing winds and seasonality of the mid-latitudes. On the other hand, individuals in the hot, humid, and seasonally un-changing weather of the tropics would be lethargic and lacking in energy.

Environmental determinism had important conceptual precedents. Promi-nent geographers such as Friedrich Ratzel, Halford J. Mackinder, and Wil-liam Morris Davis, among others, had written convincingly about the role ofthe physical environment and its influences on human groups. Ratzel, who wasGerman, wrote about the effects of different physical features on the course ofhuman history in the first volume of his work Anthropogeographie (1882). Al-though his second volume in the series, published a few years later, spoke moredirectly about culture groups, many prominent geographers continued to holdwith his pronouncements on the power of the physical environment.

Mackinder, Britain’s dominant geographical leader at the end of the nine-teenth century, also spoke of the influence of the physical environment on hu-mans. Mackinder, in 1877, was seeking to find a solid role for geography in theexpanding universities. He contended that no other discipline dealt with theinterface of the natural world and human culture and that geography must takeup that challenge. Mackinder further stated that the function of geography wasto show how physical causes directed human activity.

In the United States, Davis, in the late 1800s, contended that the core of ge-ography was the relationship between the physical environment and humanbehavior. Reflective of the thinking at that time, Davis concluded that thephysical world controlled human behavior.

Environmental determinism is a concept that eventually was judged to betoo rigid. Geographers began to move away from the strict deterministic tenet


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in this concept. Certainly the environment influences human activity and willhave an impact on behavior, but to contend that environmental factors deter-mined human behavior was seen to be too pointed. Environmental determin-ism gradually gave way to the more flexible and logical concept of possibilismin the 1920s.

Suggested Readings: R. J. Johnston et al., The Dictionary of Human Geography, 2nd ed., Ox-ford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1993; David N. Livingston, The Geographical Tradition, Cambridge,Mass.: Blackwell, 1994.

Environmental perception. Perceptions of the environment held by individu-als and culture groups condition attitudes and influence decisions about thoseplaces. How people perceive environments and the images they hold areshaped by the level of knowledge about the place, their experiences, beliefs,value systems, and attitudes. We all view and perceive places through our indi-vidual cultural prisms.

A perceptionist contends that people cannot see their physical setting ob-jectively. This view may be traced back to the work of Immanuel Kant, the fa-mous eighteenth-century German philosopher, who wrote that our knowledgeof the world is always gained through our perceptions and that all we can reallyknow are the images the mind creates.

Geographers have used the concepts embedded in environmental percep-tion to study human attitudes toward particular attitudes and behaviors. For in-stance, a significant number of works have been completed that considerperceptions of natural hazards. Why do groups choose to live in known haz-ardous regions? Why would people live in areas that are prone to the destruc-tion caused by floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes,and other natural phenomena? Some people believe that religious belief willspare them from harm. Others hold governmental agencies responsible foralerting them to coming hazards. In Western societies it is commonly held thattechnology will ensure that the hazard will not be harmful.

Environmental perception also comes into play when people migrate. In theUnited States it is not accidental that migration from the northern regions hasbeen predominantly to warm, sunny states such as California, Arizona, andFlorida. Migrations can invoke other perceptual bases as well. For example,early residents of the Appalachian Mountains, choosing to migrate as popula-tion numbers increased, chose the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains of Missouri,Arkansas, and Oklahoma, which they perceived to be similar to the Ap-palachians. Some later migrated to the Texas Hill Country.

Suggested Readings: David Lowenthal and Marlyn J. Bowden, Geographies of the Mind, NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1976; Risa Palm, Natural Hazards, Baltimore: Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 1990.

Eratosthenes (272–192 B.C.). Eratosthenes, an important Greek astronomerand geographer, is widely considered the father of geography because he was

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the first to use the term. Literally translated, the word means earth (geo) writ-ing (graphy); hence, writing about the earth in all its myriad details. Eratos-thenes was broadly educated in mathematics, philosophy, philology, andrhetoric. He became chief librarian at the Egyptian Museum in Alexandria in234 B.C., a position of great prestige.

Eratosthenes is noted for his calculations of the circumference of the earth.His approach to this accomplishment was quite novel at the time. It wascommon knowledge that at the time of the summer solstice, the sun’s reflec-tion could be seen at the bottom of a deep well on an island in the Nile Rivernear Syene (present-day Aswan). The sun at that time would be directlyoverhead, and this established one part of Eratosthenes’ solution. His secondobservation, made at the same time, noted the length of a shadow from atower at the Alexandria Museum, directly north of the well. Both the welland the tower were vertical and therefore pointed to the center of the earth.Using the length of the shadow cast from the tower, Eratosthenes was able tomeasure its angular displacement and, knowing that the distance from thewell to the tower was 500 miles, he calculated the circumference of the earthto be 25,000 miles. His calculation proved to be very accurate; the circumfer-ence of the earth was later determined with precision instruments to be24,860 miles.

It is noteworthy that fifteenth-century Italian explorer Christopher Colum-bus commenced his travels west across the Atlantic Ocean believing the cir-cumference of the earth to be 18,000 miles. He accepted the long-held beliefthat the circumference measurement made by another Greek scholar, Posido-nius, and accepted by the second-century Egyptian mathematician and geogra-pher Ptolemy, to be accurate. It was for this reason that Columbus believed hehad reached Asia when he landed in the Western Hemisphere.

Eratosthenes also wrote a book about the known world of his time, and hemade a world map that included the closely spaced land areas of Europa (whatis now Europe) and Libya (northern Africa), surrounded by the waters ofOceanus (a postulated body of water surrounding the known land masses of Eu-rope, Libya, and India).


Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993; George Sarton, A History of Sci-

ence: Ancient Science through the Golden Age of Greece, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 1964.

Ethnicity. Culture groups are unique in the specific set of attributes that iden-tify them. Each group has its own belief systems and behaviors that distinguishit from other groups. Ethnicity is a term that refers to these cultural differences.The word derives from Greek origins and is simply translated as “people” or“nationality.”

Ethnicity is expressed spatially. Every culture group has an area that serves asthe group’s base territory. Because of the spatial expression of ethnicity, the

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subdiscipline of ethnic geography has developed over time to study these eth-nic groupings. Examples of ethnic territory are plentiful (e.g., Japan’s four-island complex is its base territory). But humans are mobile, and members of anethnic group migrate to other regions for a variety of reasons. For instance, anumber of Vietnamese and Hmong communities developed outside their coun-try after the Vietnam War ended. Such communities may be classified as ex-claves of their country of origin and enclaves within the country of currentresidence.

In the United States, people of Hispanic origin account for about 12 percentof the total population. In the state of New Mexico, however, Hispanics ac-count for 40 percent of the population. Some counties in New Mexico haveupward of 80 percent Hispanic residents. This example points out that ethnicgroups tend to stay together in a region to retain their distinctive character.

African Americans still represent a large percentage of the population inthe Southern states. This is true despite their significant migration out of theSouth, especially after World War II. In recent years, as the social setting inthe South has become more sympathetic to African Americans, more are mi-grating to the South. The specter of segregation forced on African Americansin the past has abated. Yet, African Americans and other ethnic groups, inmany cases, prefer to stay together in their own spatial settings. The notion ofthe melting pot in the United States has not been realized to the extent orig-inally expected.

Tensions may arise when ethnic groups find themselves living in proximityto one another. The violent uprisings and conflict that scarred the former Yu-goslavia are a case in point. The plight of the Kurdish ethnic group in south-western Asia is particularly distressing. The Kurds are living in parts of severalcountries and do not have their own sovereign state. As such, they are essen-tially at the whim of the government ruling those countries and are powerless,with no true homeland of their own.

Suggested Readings: James P. Allen and Eugene Turner, We the People: An Atlas of America’s

Ethnic Diversity, New York: Macmillan, 1988; “Ethnicity and Geography,” GeoJournal, vol. 30,special issue (1993).

European Union. The European Union (EU), a 15-country supranational or-ganization formed in 1992, represents the culmination of attempts over manyyears to form an economic union of European states. The basis of the integra-tion is economic solidarity. As the process of uniting unfolded over the yearsafter the 1950s, it became clear that the EU, once formed, would wield consid-erable political power as well.

The EU is the most powerful supranational organization in the world. Com-posed of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ire-land, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and theUnited Kingdom, the EU gradually emerged in its final configuration from anumber of previous organizations. Among these preliminary attempts at inte-

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gration were the European Economic Community, or Common Market, in1958, and the European Community, in 1986.

Frustrated by the lack of progress in achieving the hoped-for economic inte-gration, the European leaders passed the Single Europe Act (SEA) in 1986.The purpose of this document was to put in place the mechanisms necessary toeliminate barriers to a unified economic system by the early 1990s. Progress wasmade in this regard, and the long-anticipated interlocking of the economies ofthe 15 EU members was achieved in 1992.

The need for a supranational organization linking the European countrieswas seen as crucial. Twice during the twentieth century, European countrieshad declared war on one another. The results of both these wars were greatdevastation and the ruination of the overall economic structure of Europe.There was unanimous agreement among the European policy makers that aunion of states would work to avoid a repeat of the kind of conflict seen in thepast century.

One of the greatest achievements of the EU has been the creation of agreatly expanded and more efficient internal market. Most borders in the EUare completely open, and there are no tariffs existing between member coun-tries. In addition, economic growth within the member countries has expandedsignificantly. Economic growth within the EU has also benefited from in-creased foreign investment.

The advances made in the EU economic structure have not come withoutsome sacrifices. Initially there was a great deal of reluctance on the part ofmember countries to give up their national currency in favor of the Euro. Eu-rope without its pounds, francs, marks, and lire seemed unimaginable. A na-tion’s currency is, after all, an important attribute of its culture. It appears,however, that this hurdle is successfully passed.

One additional concession required of all member states was the relinquish-ing of some degree of political control in favor of the EU’s governing organiza-tion. However, it seemed that a loss of power would be more than compensatedby the advantages of membership in the EU.

Ten countries have been invited to join the EU on May 1, 2004: Cyprus (theGreek region), the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary,Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Talks are planned with Turkey in 2005.

Suggested Readings: A. H. Dawson, The Geography of European Integration: A Common Euro-

pean Home?, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993; David Hooson, Geography and National Iden-

tity, Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1994.

Exclave. See Enclave and exclave.

Exclusive economic zone. Countries with a coastline on an ocean may claimexclusive use of the water and sea bottom for economic exploitation. Thisarea is called an exclusive economic zone (EEZ). At the turn of the twentiethcentury, coastal states in the United States began to claim control of the

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ocean waters within three miles of their land. Their concern was to protectcoastal industries and to guarantee their neutrality in times of conflict be-tween adversaries in the region. Following World War I, the League of Na-tions began to discuss the question of the rights of coastal states to extendtheir sovereignty seaward from their seacoasts. The League took no formal po-sition at that time.

Interest in extending control of the sea adjacent to the coastline of theUnited States peaked in 1945 with the Truman Proclamation. As a result ofthis decree, the U.S. government laid claim to all resources on and above thecontinental shelf extending from its coastlines. The initial incentive for thisclaim was the desire to embark on offshore oil exploration. Other countries fol-lowed the United States’ lead.

In time, nearly all the world’s countries having coastlines were claiming sov-ereignty over adjacent ocean waters. A series of disputes and unjustified claimsensued, and the United Nations (UN) Conference on the Law of the Sea con-vened to address the complex issue. In 1982, draft legislation was passed in theform of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which pro-claimed in part, that coastal states could claim an exclusive economic zone ex-tending up to 200 nautical miles from shore. The country claiming this regionhad rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage the natural resourceswithin the waters and in the seabed. There was an additional provision that ex-tended the claim to 350 miles from the coast if the continental shelf extendedthat far. Freedom of the high seas was guaranteed for seafarers traveling withinthe EEZ as long as they did not attempt to acquire resources protected by theproclamation. In 1994, UNCLOS became international law.

Suggested Readings: Gerald H. Blake, Maritime Boundaries, New York: Routledge, 1994; M. I.Glassner, Neptune’s Domain: A Political Geography of the Sea, Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990.

Expansion diffusion. An idea, innovation, or disease may spread from a centerand impact others as it expands outward. Diffusion of this kind is called expan-sion diffusion. There are three recognized forms of expansion diffusion: hierar-chical, contagious, and stimulus.

Hierarchical diffusion occurs when an idea, innovation, or substance isspread from one node or individual to another. If the hierarchy is composed ofurban centers, the item may travel up or down the urban hierarchy. Fashionsare diffused in this manner and will travel from high-order centers (Paris, NewYork, and Los Angeles, for instance) to lower-order urban places, and finally torural areas. The spread of McDonald’s restaurants throughout the world oc-curred through hierarchical diffusion.

Diseases and influenzas have been traced to hierarchical diffusion. In thenineteenth century, cholera moved along the urban hierarchy from origins onthe East Coast to lower-order centers in the Midwest. The so-called Asian fluoutbreaks common every year in the United States enter through high-ordercenters and are then diffused throughout the urban hierarchy.

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Once established in an urban center, a disease may spread in an ever in-creasing wavelike pattern outward from the origin. This identifies the secondform of expansion diffusion, called contagious diffusion. The concept of dis-tance decay applies in contagious diffusion: the shorter the distance the traittravels, the greater its likelihood of finding accepters.

Stimulus diffusion is another process that accommodates the spread of atrait. In stimulus diffusion, a particular idea or innovation may well be rejected,but the underlying idea may be accepted. The herding, rather than hunting, ofreindeer in Siberia came about through observation of cattle herding in areasalong the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The indigenous Siberians did not want towork with cattle but took the herding idea and applied it to reindeer.

Suggested Readings: Richard Morrill et al., Spatial Diffusion, vol. 10, Scientific GeographySeries, Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1988; Richard K. Ormrod, “Adaptation and Cultural Diffu-sion,” Journal of Geography, vol. 91 (1992).

Extensive agriculture. In von Thunen’s land use model, developed in theearly 1800s by the German economist Johann Heinrich von Thunen, the con-centric zone farthest from the market center—and consequently the largestarea—is an example of the use of land for extensive agriculture. The area itselfis extensive compared to others, and the land is the least costly.

One agricultural product grown extensively is wheat. This grain needs morespace to grow; therefore, yields per unit area are low compared to those withcorn or rice, which are examples of intensive agriculture. Wheat farming in-volves large costs for harvesting machinery, but since the areas are so extensive,the cost per unit area is relatively low. Although wheat farming is considered tobe more machine intensive, its human labor costs are lower. Farms in thewheat belt of the United States and Canada may reach 500 hectares in size.

Another extensive land use is livestock ranching. Free-range grazing of cat-tle is common in the western United States and some areas of Canada andMexico. Although these operations are usually found a considerable distancefrom their markets, they are, nonetheless, accessible to them by surface trans-portation (i.e., roads, railroads, etc.).

Nomadic herding is a common practice throughout most of the developingworld. Like ranching in North America, nomadic herding is an extensive landuse practice. The controlled movement of animals to find naturally occurringfood sources characterizes nomadic herding. Nomadic herding is practiced ex-tensively in mid-latitude Asian countries, throughout Africa south of the Sa-hara Desert, and in countries with coastlines on the Arctic Ocean.

Shifting cultivation is another form of extensive agriculture found in thelow-latitude regions of the developing world. In this practice, a field is clearedand crops are planted and harvested for a multiyear period. When the soil be-gins to lose its fertility due to continued use without time for regeneration, thefield is abandoned and another area is opened for farming. This process willcontinue (1) as long as there are new fields to bring into production, or (2) the


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first field abandoned has regained soil fertility and may again become part ofthe cycle of land use.

Suggested Readings: Chris Dixon, Rural Development in the Third World, New York: Rout-ledge, 1990; William J. Peters and Leon F. Neuerschwander, Slash and Burn: Farming in the Third

World Forests, Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1988.


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Fall line. The topography of the eastern United States includes a flat coastalplain that meets a hilly region of hard, crystalline rock called the Piedmont.West of the Piedmont is the ancient and weathered Appalachian Mountains.The interface of the Piedmont and the coastal plain is an important juncture,both physically and historically. A series of waterfalls are found at the junctureof the Piedmont and coastal plain. These points on the river comprise the fallline.

During colonial times, settlement from New York southward was limited pri-marily to sites on the coastal plain. Although dozens of navigable rivers flowedout of the Piedmont and across the coastal plain, they were navigable only tothe interface with the Piedmont. When a river left the Piedmont, it camethrough rapids and over rock waterfalls before settling on the smooth surface ofthe plain.

The falls marked the head of navigation on the rivers and disallowed boattraffic beyond that point, prohibiting access to the inland. But they also pro-vided a source of power. In time, a series of settlements began to develop alongthis line of falls, or fall line, as it came to be known.

Several important functions were established in fall line settlements. Sincethe falls stopped boat traffic upstream, these sites became break-of-bulkpoints. Any cargo slated for shipment to places upstream beyond the falls hadto be unloaded and packed on land vehicles for the next leg of the journey. Ofgreat importance was the power afforded by the waterfalls. Lumber millingand the grinding of grain were two important industries that developed be-cause of waterpower at these settlements. Finally, the settlements themselvesbegan to add all the necessary functions to support these growing activities.

Hotels, repair facilities, general stores, and homes for permanent residentswere built.

Many of today’s prominent cities had their start as fall line settlements.Among them are Trenton, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Wilming-ton, Delaware; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Richmond, Vir-ginia.

Suggested Readings: John Frazer Hart, The Look of the Land, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: PrenticeHall, 1975; Robert D. Mitchell and Paul A. Groves, North America: The Historical Geography of a

Changing Continent, Savage, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1987.

Feedlot. During the first half of the twentieth century, livestock were fattenedand readied for slaughter at a relatively small number of stockyards. Two of thelargest were in Chicago, Illinois, and Kansas City, Missouri. In the 1950s, how-ever, commercial livestock operators began to specialize in the slaughter-preparation process. One special operation involved the fattening of livestockat highly mechanized feedlots located close to large metropolitan centers.

Since the 1950s there has been a dramatic increase in the number of feedlotsin the Great Plains and western states. A concentration of feedlots exists in acorridor from South Dakota to Texas. Some of the feedlots in West Texas han-dle as many as one million cattle. Feedlots are also found in significant num-bers in Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Washington.

Dairy farmers also use the feedlot system. Dairy feedlots are also located onthe suburban fringe of large cities, allowing quick access to market for milk andother dairy products.

The feedlot system has been characterized as a form of factory farming be-cause it is a large-scale operation, highly mechanized, and technologically ad-vanced. Dairy feedlots, for instance, can handle many more cows than even thelargest dairy farm. Feedlots represent another example of agribusiness in itsmost highly developed form.

Suggested Readings: John Fraser Hart, The Rural Landscape, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni-versity Press, 1998; Iain Wallace, “Towards a Geography of Agribusiness,” Progress in Human Ge-

ography, vol. 9 (1985).

Folk and popular culture. Examples of particular cultural attributes—such asmusic, foods, or dress styles—may be distinguished as being “folk” or “popular.”Although the attribute itself may be found in both folk and popular culture,there are significant differences in the way they originate and diffuse.

Folk culture is usually limited to a small area and number of practitioners.The Amish tradition, for instance, dictates the use of horse and carriage fortransporting children to school. This form of transportation, representativeof folk culture, is in stark contrast to the widespread and ubiquitous yellowschool buses used since the 1950s in the United States to transport students.The advent of the school bus represents attributes of popular culture: thetransportation form is widespread, and it diffused quickly from its points oforigin.

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Folk culture is also represented by building and fence types that remain at ornear their centers of origin. The yurt house in China, the pueblo building stylein the southwestern United States, Quebec cottages, and post-and-rail fencingall exemplify folk culture.

Folk music originated at a number of localized points primarily in the ruralareas of the South and the Appalachian Mountains. Their spread to other re-gions was limited in distance and was normally the result of relocation diffu-sion, the spread of a characteristic through migration.

Aspects of popular culture, on the other hand, if accepted by others, willdiffuse rapidly and may expand globally in a short time. The appearance ofMcDonald’s restaurants in virtually every major city worldwide is a classic ex-ample of hierarchical diffusion (see Expansion diffusion). The spread of pizzaparlors in North America and then to other countries is another example of awide diffusion of popular culture.

Japan has accepted a number of attributes of U.S. popular culture. Amongthese are baseball and golf, two popular sports introduced into Japan during theU.S. military occupation following World War II. Soccer represents anotherexample of popular culture that has achieved worldwide acceptance—it hasbecome the most popular sport on the globe.

Any number of additional examples of popular culture can be given. Amongthese are blue jeans, a clothing style that spread worldwide from origins in theUnited States; the popularity and global acceptance of musicians such as ElvisPresley, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones; and Western dress styles. It is be-coming more common in Asian and African countries for Western businesssuits to replace traditional clothing styles. Replacement of traditional attri-butes of culture by the acceptance of substitutes through widespread diffusionhas been seen as a threat to the existence of local folk cultures. The decline inpopularity of locally produced soft drinks in China following the introductionof Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola is a case in point.

Suggested Readings: George O. Carney, The Sounds of People and Places: Readings in the Geog-

raphy of American Folk and Popular Music, 3rd ed., Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994;

Paul Oliver, The House across the World, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.

Footloose industry. A manufacturing activity that is free to locate where itwants to and whose transportation costs are a minor element in total productcost is said to be footloose in its choice of a site to establish its place of business.In like manner, a footloose industry is not required to locate near its raw mate-rial source or a power site.

Examples of footloose industries in economic geography include electronicsmanufacture, manufacturing operations that assemble component parts, high-technology equipment, manufacture requiring high levels of information in-puts and brainpower, and some forms of food processing.

The manufacture of electronic equipment, for instance, involves the produc-tion of highly valuable items that are usually lightweight. As such, transport

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costs do not become a factor in location, either for the procurement of raw ma-terials or for shipment to market centers. Electronic equipment manufacturewill not be tied to a power site, because electricity can be accessed virtuallyanywhere in the developed world.

Despite the locational advantages enjoyed by footloose industries, they will,nonetheless, choose to locate within areas of the greatest potential profit.Thus, a location within a few miles of its market will be favored over one thatis 50 or 100 miles away.

Some industries are inseparable from their markets, such as bakeries, news-paper publishing firms, and producers of dairy products. These will be found inor near towns and cities because their sole purpose is to provide their productswith near immediacy. These operations are called ubiquitous industries, a closerelative of the footloose form.

Suggested Readings: Keith Chapman and David Walker, Industrial Location, 2nd ed., Cam-bridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1991; James O. Wheeler et al., Economic Geography, 3rd ed., NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Fordist. The pioneering American automobile manufacturer Henry Ford (1863–1947) was instrumental in revolutionizing the manner in which his vehicles wereproduced. Beginning in the post–World War I years, Ford applied the assemblyline process to the manufacture of automobiles and succeeded in producing vehi-cles that were priced within the budget of most American families and could eas-ily be repaired because of interchangeable parts. Ford’s effort and ingenuityresulted in the mass production of automobiles for a growing mass market. Ford’sideas on manufacturing were so influential throughout the North American in-dustrial system that the term Fordist was used to identify the process.

Ford’s assembly line process was soon applied throughout the manufacturingsector. Assembly line operations sprung up throughout the great North Ameri-can manufacturing belt, producing washing machines, refrigerators, and a myr-iad of consumer goods. Ford’s manufacturing system ended the days ofsmall-scale, isolated, and relatively inefficient operations. In their place wasthe single large manufacturing center in which each worker on the assemblyline had one or two tasks to perform on the automobile or refrigerator movingalong the line. Corporate ownership of large plants allowed for greatereconomies of scale, and the costs per unit produced were greatly lowered.

The assembly line operation was the first of many innovations that occurredin the period from 1920 to the 1970s. Others included the building of an effi-cient highway system to augment the limited reach of fixed railroad lines. Thehighway system was greatly enhanced beginning in the mid-1950s with the ini-tiation of the interstate, limited-access roads.

Commerce and industry advanced as well with the growth of a fully inte-grated airline system designed for the fast delivery of lightweight industrialitems, mail, and passengers. Finally, communication improvements were real-ized with the wide-scale incorporation of radio (1920s) and television (1950s).

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Without the Fordist system, the economic progress enjoyed throughout thecentury could not have occurred as quickly.

Suggested Readings: David R. Meyer, “Emergence of the American Manufacturing Belt: AnInterpretation,” Journal of Historical Geography, vol. 9 (1983); James M. Rubinstein, The Chang-

ing U.S. Auto Industry, New York: Routledge, 1992.


Forward thrust capital city. On occasion a state government will relocate itscapital city. The reasons for such a move vary, from concern for national secu-rity, to a desire to alert the state of government intentions to expand settle-ment beyond a frontier, or to a need to stimulate economic development. Acity of this type is called a forward thrust capital city.

Brasilia, an interior city, was named capital of Brazil following the transfer ofstate government from Rio de Janeiro in 1960. Brasilia is an ultramodern cityliterally carved out of the tropical rain forest. Since the time of Portuguese set-tlement during the first era of colonialism, from about 1500 to 1800, coastal lo-cations have predominated. The Brazilian government moved the capital toBrasilia to signal its intention to develop its remote western regions.

Brazilian governmental officials believed that Brasilia would attract migrantsfrom Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and other coastal centers. This migration wasnot realized to the degree expected. In fact, something of a reverse move tookplace. Residents of small settlements in the interior moved to Brasilia and thencontinued to migrate to the very coastal cities the government hoped would bethe source of migrants to Brasilia and the interior.

Nigeria’s new capital of Abuja, so named in 1991, is located very near thecenter of the country. In this case, the government wanted to develop thenorthern region of the country, which was essentially ignored during the colo-nial era. There is also the desire to locate the seat of government equidistantfrom the Muslim north and the Christian south in the hope of avoiding con-flicts in the future. Finally, the old capital of Lagos, a true primate city and pre-mier administrative point during the colonial era, is extremely crowded.Moving the capital and its associated government functions and workers, it ishoped, will alleviate some of the pressures within this burgeoning urban center.

Pakistan’s transfer of its capital from Karachi to Islamabad in the 1960s wasan attempt to focus government attention on the historical center of the coun-try. Pakistan’s culture hearth is located in the northern part of the country.There is another reason for this move: the governmental center would becloser to Kashmir, a province whose ownership is disputed with neighboringIndia. By locating closer to Kashmir, any threats emanating from that regioncould be noted and a response initiated.

Suggested Readings: John Agnew, Political Geography: A Reader, New York: John Wiley &Sons, 1996; Peter M. Slowe, Geography and Political Power: The Geography of Nations and States,

London: Routledge, 1990.


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Frontier. A frontier is a zone or area separating states. Frontiers are demarcatedareas, whereas boundaries are lines. The frontier area is usually sparsely popu-lated, and its presence marks the limit of state administration and control.

With the discovery and occupation of nearly all of the world’s land areas,frontiers have been replaced by boundaries. A few frontiers still remain, how-ever. Antarctica contains a number of frontier zones separating states that haveadministrative responsibilities. Saudi Arabia has frontier with Qatar, Oman,Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates. Within these areas, nomadic herdingactivities operate freely. The Saudis have a small frontier zone along part oftheir border with Iraq. Military personnel have manned this so-called neutralzone on both sides, and in 1990 this became an unofficial boundary.

The boundary between Russia and China has all of the attributes of a fron-tier, even though the line separating the two countries is unambiguously clear.Nonetheless, the area is sparsely populated, remote from the major concentra-tions of population and economic activity, and has been the site of border dis-putes and military skirmishes for years. In this sense, it is a frontierlike area.

The frontier played a large role in the westward expansion of the UnitedStates. The first true frontier in the United States lay along the fall line, the se-ries of waterfalls that stopped navigation on rivers flowing from the Piedmontonto the coastal plain. As settlement moved west, the frontier moved with it,and regions previously not under governmental control became occupied terri-tories.

The American historian Frederick Jackson Turner (1861–1932) eloquentlystated the theme of the frontier and what it means in American history. Thereal meaning of much of American history, Turner contended, could be gainedonly through understanding the frontier experience. The westward movementmolded a truly American character and developed a new, non-European set-tler, according to Turner.

Turner’s frontier thesis had a profound influence on historical thinking forgenerations and is still revered as a seminal work on the American experience.The eminent nineteenth-century German geographer Friedrich Ratzel consid-ered Turner’s thesis to be an important theory supporting his own notions com-paring the state to an organism that must grow and change. Carl Sauer, one ofthe most prominent twentieth-century American geographers, however, tookissue with Turner’s thesis, considering it simplistic and inaccurate.

Suggested Readings: David Hooson, Geography and National Identity, Oxford, U.K.: BasilBlackwell, 1994; J. R. V. Prescott, Political Frontiers and Boundaries, Winchester, Mass.: Allen &Unwin, 1990.

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Gender. A considerable amount of research in recent years has centered on thespatial aspects of gender differences. The major outcome of this research in cul-tural geography is the realization that women in every society are not treatedas positively as men. A great measure of gender inequality may be found in allculture groups.

One demographic fact does favor women: worldwide, and to varying degrees,women live longer. Women’s longevity has been at least partially explained bytheir comparative restraint from physically harmful practices, such as smokingand abuse of alcohol and drugs. Some experts have suggested that women’slongevity may also be traced to an innate ability to better handle stress. Thiscontention, if true, may dissipate as more women—especially in developedcountries—gain full-time employment while continuing to be the primaryhomemaker.

There are a number of ways in which women are treated inequitably. It isuniversally true that wage rates for women are, on average, significantly lowerthan for men. This is true even though the job has the same degree of difficultyand responsibility. Also, there are far fewer women in the highest levels of busi-ness and industry. Women climbing the corporate ladder will eventually hitwhat has been called a “glass ceiling” that bars them from rising higher in thecorporate hierarchy.

It is also true in the United States that women are not present in nationalgovernment to the same degree as men, even though the country’s populationis approximately equal in the number of males and females.

Inequities between men and women are found in the developed countries,but they are far more prevalent in the developing world. Illiteracy rates are

much higher among women in developing countries. Young girls may trace thisfact to the lower number of school years attended. The traditional view of therole of girls and women is that they should work in the home.

It has also been shown that women and children fare much worse in refugeecamps. Death and disease rates are much higher than for men living under thesame conditions.

In Saudi Arabia, many restrictions are placed on women. For instance,women’s clothing must adhere to government-dictated standards, and womenare not allowed to drive automobiles. Under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan,women suffered greatly. They were not allowed to work outside the home or ob-tain formal education, and they were ordered to wear a burkha, a garment thatcompletely covered them from head to foot. A mesh fabric partially coveringthe face allowed them to see the outside.

Most cultures in the developing world favor the birth of male children. Assuch, it is not uncommon for female fetuses to be aborted in the hope that asubsequent pregnancy will bring a boy. In China, the one-child family becamenational policy in 1979. Negative incentives dissuaded most Chinese couplesfrom having more than one child. If a female baby was born, it was often put todeath because if the couple were to have only one child, they preferred it to bea boy. Widespread infanticide began in the early 1980s and continued into the1990s but then declined as the one-child policy was not prosecuted as strongly.Female infanticide is a stunning example of the favoritism afforded the malegender.

Suggested Readings: Susan Hanson and Geraldine Pratt, Gender, Work, and Space, New York:Routledge, 1995; Daphne Spain, Gendered Spaces, Chapel Hill: University of North CarolinaPress, 1992.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Twenty-three countries passed theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1948. GATT was an at-tempt to stabilize and organize a reasonable and workable tariff system coveringinternational trade. Under GATT, tariffs were initially reduced on more than40,000 items regularly traded.

The rules under which GATT operated brought a measure of common senseinto the world-trading arena. The major rules imparted by GATT included thefollowing:

1. If one state reduced tariffs against another, then the second was required tolower its tariffs.

2. Preferential trade arrangements that favored one state more than others couldnot be established. This rule created the “most favored nation” policy, whichstated that every country must be treated with equal fairness.

3. Existing nontariff barriers were to be replaced with tariffs. Visible tariffs couldbe open to inspection and would be easier to reduce if necessary.

4. Developing countries received favorable trade treatment under special provi-sions in GATT.


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GATT members met on a regular basis to monitor trade and tariff activities andto settle any disputes that arose.

GATT worked well through the 1970s as world trade increased and tariffswere reduced. However, in the 1980s GATT became less effective. GATT wasset up primarily to regulate tariffs on manufactured goods. It was not set up towork with trade in agricultural products nor could its mechanisms handle ne-gotiations involving international trading in the service sector. Both of theseareas of the global economy were increasing in importance as manufacturingwas stabilizing, or declining in some regions.

GATT members continued to meet through the 1980s to work on a vastlyrevised document that would bring it effectively into the changed globaleconomy. By this time, GATT membership included nearly all of the tradingnations in the world. In December 1994, a new GATT document was signedthat further reduced tariffs and changed a number of rules dealing with worldtrade. The new GATT document also created the World Trade Organization(WTO), which was empowered to enforce the new trade regulations. WTOalso has the power to assess penalties against countries that violate the newrules on trade.

Suggested Readings: John H. Dunning, “What’s Wrong—and Right—with Trade Theory?”International Trade Journal (summer 1995); Michael E. Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Na-

tions, New York: Free Press, 1990.

Gentrification. Beginning in the 1970s, run-down dwellings in low-incomeneighborhoods in U.S. inner cities became targets for restoration and upgrad-ing, called gentrification. The refurbished apartments and single-family houseswere made available primarily to middle-class families and individuals whowanted to live closer to jobs in the central cities. In many ways the gentrifica-tion movement marked the first significant reversal of the move to the outlyingareas of suburbia. Ironically, the same concept of accessibility that explainedthe suburban phenomenon, in this case improved transportation systems, isapplied to gentrification: proximity to jobs, primarily in the expanding servicesector in the city centers.

Upgrading deteriorating but structurally sound buildings in the inner cityhas some positive sides. First is the added attractiveness of the newly refur-bished neighborhood. Second is the increase in the city’s tax base as higher-income residents occupy improved housing. Third is the additional develop-ment of restaurants, urban mini-malls, and other services, which add to theeconomic base of the inner city.

There are negative outcomes, as well, from gentrification. Removing low-rent housing displaces people who cannot afford to purchase a home or pay thehigher rent associated with an upgraded apartment complex. Gentrificationalso breaks the filtering process in which older, obsolete housing, when va-cated, is made available (filtered down) to people of lesser means. When thiscycle is broken, those who would have found a residence have fewer choices.

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Added to the problem of housing for low-income people was the precipitousdecline in the 1980s in federal money for building subsidized housing. Morethan $30 billion was allotted for these projects in 1980; by the early 1990s theamount available declined to less than $9 billion. The decline in new subsi-dized housing has led, in part, to a great increase in the number of homelesspeople in the United States. In 2000, the homeless population was estimatedto be over 3.5 million.

Some researchers have attributed the homeless problem to gentrification.This is true to a limited extent, but gentrification was never a major factor inurban migration. In fact, the movement was limited to select neighborhoodsclose to the central city that had an inventory of run-down but structurallysound buildings. Further, gentrification movements were most evident in theeastern seaboard cities of Megalopolis, and they have not been as extensive inother regions.

Suggested Readings: Daniel J. Hammel and Elvin K. Wyly, “A Model for Identifying Gentri-fied Areas with Census Data,” Urban Geography, vol. 17 (1996); Paul L. Knox, The Restless

Urban Landscape, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1993.

Geographic information systems. One of the most powerful new methodolo-gies in geography developed in the past 25 years is geographic information sys-tems (GIS). GIS is a comprehensive, complex, and integrated set of computerprograms that handles all aspects of data acquisition, management, and display.The computer has revolutionized mapmaking and data storage; GIS has refinedthis powerful electronic medium and elevated it to a higher scientific plane. Infact, GIS is sometimes referred to as “geographic information science.”

A GIS will handle the access of spatial data—either digitally acquired or op-tically scanned—its storage, organization, quantification and statistical analy-sis, and display of resulting maps and graphics. None of these individualprocesses are new to the field of computer cartography. Before the develop-ment of GIS, however, each represented a single step in the process. With GIS,all of the operations are contained in a single package.

GIS uses a process called information layering, the storage of spatial infor-mation in separate packages that can be displayed on a computer graphicsscreen either individually or in layers.

Suppose a firm wants to select the ideal location for a new shopping mall onthe fringes of a metropolitan area. The mall will attract thousands of people ona daily basis, so accessibility by private automobile and public transportation isessential. The new mall must be located in an area not already containing acomparable retail operation. The new location must have sufficient electricalpower, gas lines, sewer connections, and water supply to support the daily oper-ation of the mall. Data on all of these requirements and many more can be ac-cessed, stored, analyzed, and graphically displayed using a GIS.

Some of the layers in a GIS used to locate the shopping mall might displaybase mapping (roads, developed areas, physical contour lines, existing malls,


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and other basic spatial information), zoned areas, current land ownership, andexisting utilities (gas, electric, water, and sewers). The GIS can then be used todisplay and print a series of maps that will be useful in choosing the best loca-tion for the new mall.

GIS is widely used as a powerful spatial analysis tool in geography and otherdisciplines, and just as extensively in business, industry, and government.

Suggested Readings: Mark Monmonier, “Raster Data for the Layman: Just What Is GIS?”Mercator’s World, vol. 1 (1996); GEOSOURCE, at www.geo.ed.ac.uk, has a listing of GIS-related sites maintained by the University of Edinburgh.

Geography. The word geography derives from the Greek words ge (earth) andgraphein (to write). Literally translated, geography means “writing about theearth.” Eratosthenes, a prominent Greek scholar, was the first to use the wordgeography, in the third century B.C. However, studies that could be character-ized as being geographic in nature had been documented for at least five mil-lennia before Eratosthenes’ day.

In the preface to his Source Book in Geography (1978), George Kish includesthe following statement about geography:

Geography is as old as man’s first search for a bit of soil to dig for plantings, for apath that leads to water, for a trail to a place where hard rock for arrowheads maybe found. Geography is as new as man’s search for ways to relieve urban conges-tion, to establish well-marked international boundaries, to describe and analyzevegetation patterns in remote parts of the earth. (p. ix)

Geography and its practice have been around as long as humans have inhab-ited the earth.

Preston E. James and Geoffrey J. Martin include in their work All PossibleWorlds: A History of Geographical Ideas (1993) a useful method for tracing theorigins and continuation of geography through time. James and Martin sug-gest that five types of questions identify geographical analysis, and that thesetypes can be found throughout human history. They include generic ques-tions about the content of earth space. For example, what kinds of land andwater features are located in particular areas? What are their inherent char-acteristics? How are they identified and named? Next are questions that helpto explain how particular features on the earth’s surface developed. For in-stance, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus speculated on the processesinvolved in the creation of the Nile River delta. In many cases, these earlyspeculations proved to be false, but it was still important to ask process ques-tions: what is the sequence of events, both physical and cultural, that ex-plains a landscape?

James and Martin also suggest that theoretical questions of a geographicalnature have been asked throughout time. Geographers, like other disciplinari-ans, attempt to derive concepts and theories to better understand their work.

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Christaller’s central place theory, developed by twentieth-century Germaneconomic geographer Walter Christaller, is an example.

James and Martin’s next question concerns geographic methodologies devel-oped over time. What techniques and instruments were derived that helped in-vestigators in their work? In recent decades, the advent of the computer, withits capacity to store and manipulate data, has greatly advanced geographicanalyses. Advances in satellite imagery and computer graphics have also revo-lutionized the fields of cartography and geography.

Finally, James and Martin identify remedial questions as being important ingeographical studies over time. For example, Herodotus expressed concernover the loss of topsoil through erosion in ancient Greece, a concern that is ap-plicable to modern times.

In 1964, William D. Pattison, an influential advocate of geographic educa-tion, presented his four traditions of geography in an article in the Journal ofGeography. Pattison said that geography derived from an earth-science tradi-tion wherein the research emphasis was on noting and studying the physicalfeatures comprising the earth’s surface. Second, Pattison contended that geog-raphy had a human-environment tradition. There is abundant evidence of thistradition dating to the time of the notable geographers Halford J. Mackinder,Friedrich Ratzel, and William Morris Davis, all of whom worked to develop abase for geography in the newly configured universities of the late nineteenthand early twentieth centuries. Their aim was to codify geography as the disci-pline that studied the spatial aspects of the union of nature and culture(human–environment interactions).

Pattison’s first tradition, earth science, sets the physical world stage for thesecond tradition, in which humans are introduced. Studies can then belaunched to note the ways in which humans interact with their environment.Pattison takes the process ahead to a third tradition: area studies. Geographersrefer to area studies as regions. The East Asian region, for instance, will bemarkedly different from that of North America, even though some environ-mental elements are similar. The differences are attributable to the variedhuman responses to their environment by each culture group. Finally, Pattisonidentified the spatial tradition, which, many geographers contend, is intrinsicto the previous three.

Geography is a bridging discipline. That is, it has its roots in all four of themajor divisions of knowledge: the physical or natural sciences, the biologicalsciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. As such, geography has beencategorized as an integrating and synthesizing discipline.

Consider Yi-Fu Tuan’s pointed definition: geography is the study of the earthas the home of people. Within this brief statement is a working premise for un-derstanding geography. Tuan, who developed humanistic geography in theearly 1970s, includes references to the physical world and the human domain.The important aspect of their relationship is embodied in the word home. Ge-ography, then, is the interplay of the physical world, or environment, and its

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human occupants. Geography is the physical world and the cultural world,considered as one. Any attempted separation of the discipline into physical ge-ography and human geography, for instance, is for convenience only.

Suggested Readings: Peter R. Gould, Becoming a Geographer (Space, Place, and Society), Syra-cuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1999; National Research Council, Rediscovering Geogra-

phy: New Relevance for Science and Society, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1997;Tim F. Wood, “Thinking in Geography,” Geography, vol. 72 (1987).

Geopolitics. Geopolitics is a branch of political geography that deals with thestrategic aspects of states. Included within the purview of geopolitics are spatialrelationships that have implications for military defense, national security, theprotection of national interests, and any other situation that may have an im-pact on the sovereignty of the state.

Geopolitics emerged in the early twentieth century in the context of Eu-ropean political alignments. One of its early exponents was Halford J.

Mackinder, the prominent British geographer, in his “heartland” theory.Mackinder contended that the age of sea power was ending and that thelarge landmasses would exert the greatest degree of political control in thefuture. His theory, briefly stated, suggested that control of eastern Europewould mean control of the heartland (the immense interior of Eurasia),which, in turn, would lead to control of the world island (the entirety ofEurasia). Controlling the world island, according to Mackinder’s theory,would lead to world domination.

Geopoliticians in Germany invoked the nineteenth-century German geog-rapher Friedrich Ratzel’s organic state analogy to justify German territorial ex-pansion into adjacent European countries.

Mackinder’s basic theme later had a great influence not only on othergeopoliticians but on state government as well. With the rise of the powerfulSoviet Union following World War II, the United States developed a policy ofcontainment to keep the Soviets within their Eurasian-landed area and notallow expansion to adjacent countries.

U.S. involvement in Vietnam, beginning immediately after the extricationof the French in 1954 and ending with U.S. withdrawal in 1975, proceeded onthe containment premise. Associated with containment was the domino the-ory, the belief that if communism expanded into adjacent regions, the fall ofone country would quickly lead to the fall of others, in a pattern like fallingdominoes.

With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 and radical changes occurringworldwide, it is certain that new regional political alignments will call for newgeopolitical strategies. For instance, membership in the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization (NATO), one of the supranational organizations put into placeto contain the Soviet Union and its satellite states, has been extended to someof the very states it once contained. Even Russia has, at times, been mentionedfor potential membership in NATO. Justification for these changes came from

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the perception of threat to countries in the Northern Hemisphere from re-gional blocs forming in the developing world and in the Middle East.

Suggested Readings: Saul B. Cohen, “Global Geopolitical Change in the Post–Cold WarEra,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 81 (1991); John O’Loughlin, Dictio-

nary of Geopolitics, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Gerrymandering. See Electoral geography.

Global warming. See Greenhouse effect.

Globalization. Globalization is the spread of economic activities from a homecountry to other regions of the world and the establishment of fully integratedindustrial and service organizations beyond home country borders. Primarily aneconomic process, globalization has grown to such enormous proportions thatit has powerfully influenced social and political realms worldwide.

The principal actors in the globalization process are large transnational cor-porations (TNCs), most of which have headquarters in the United States, Eu-rope, or Japan, and have offices and production facilities in other regions of theworld. TNCs have become dominant in the economic and political systemswithin the countries where they operate. In many cases, their monetary in-come exceeds the total gross national product of the host country.

A firm in the developed world gets its start in the globalization process byexpanding the export of its products. Once overseas expansion has proved tobe profitable, the firm may choose to set up manufacturing operations in an-other country. One of the prime incentives for firms to do this is the vastlylower wage rates to be found overseas. For example, Polaroid Corporation hasestablished operations in China. Nike, with headquarters in the United States,manufactures all sport clothing in overseas locations.

The final stage in a firm’s transition to globalization is perceptual: the firmbegins to identify itself in global terms. In this sense, Boeing is a major player inthe global economy. One of the recent aircraft it produced was assembled atthe firm’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington, with major components com-ing from manufacturing plants in 14 different countries, including the com-pletely assembled fuselage, which was shipped from Japan.

The globalization process proceeds effectively for a number of reasons. First,lower transportation costs allow components and parts to be sent longer dis-tances. It is commonplace in today’s global economy to see computer partssent from Southeast Asia to assembly points in the United States or Japan.Second, communication by e-mail, fax, satellite transmission, and fiber opticsis instantaneous. These modes of communicating account for the globaliza-tion of service sector economies as well. Banking, finance, and telecommuni-cation operations have become almost as ubiquitous as bakeries in every urbancenter. Third, governmental intervention in the global economic process isminimal.

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For all of its inherent efficiencies, globalization has not escaped criticism.Globalization, it is claimed, works to increase economic inequities already ex-isting between core and periphery (see Wallerstein’s world-system analysis).Many experts consider the presence of TNCs in a developing country as a formof neocolonialism, in which an entity exploits the host country without com-pensating it fairly. Others suggest that the global economy has made the sover-eign state system obsolete because host countries are essentially powerless overthe operations of the TNCs.

Suggested Readings: Peter Dicken, Global Shift: The Internalization of Economic Activity, 3rded., New York: Guilford Press, 1992; Kenichi Ohmae, “The Rise of the Region State,” Foreign

Affairs, spring 1993.


Gravity model. The concept of distance decay states that interaction betweentwo places decreases as the distance between them increases. For instance, it ishighly likely that we would attend a motion picture at a theater that is onemile from us rather than travel a greater distance for the same purpose. Thegravity model, derived from Newtonian physics, expands on the distance decayconcept and adds quantitative measures.

Newton’s law of gravity, developed by the seventeenth-century Englishphysicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, states that any two bodies at-tract one another with a force equal to the product of their masses divided bythe square of the distance separating them. Geographers have borrowed thislaw and applied it to migration flows, the attraction of various-sized cities,commodity flows, and studies of journey-to-work distances. For example, theinteraction between two urban places may be quantitatively determined by aformula using the population of each place and the distance between them:

where I is the measure of interaction, P1 and P2 are the populations of eachplace, and D is the distance separating them. If one place is larger than theother, the gravitation law states that its attraction will be greater than that ofthe smaller place. Also, if the distance between the two is greater, a generallylower measure of attraction will result.

Formulas have also been developed to determine the attraction breakingpoint between two places. That is, a person located precisely on the attractionbreaking point between two places can choose either, provided the place hasthe service or item needed. If one place is larger and as a result has greater at-traction, the breaking point will be farther from that place and closer to thesmaller place. The use of population in the formula suggests that the place witha larger number of people will have a larger number and variety of functions.

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P1P2I �

D2

As such, its reach will be greater. For instance, consider Chicago and Peoria,Illinois. Someone wanting to purchase a Tiffany-cut diamond ring after shop-ping at several jewelers would mostly likely go to Chicago.

Studies using the gravity model reached their peak during the QuantitativeRevolution in geography. Since that time, the model has continued to be ap-plied, especially in migration and transportation studies. Important refine-ments have been made to the model that allow estimates of interactionsinvolving more than two places. These so-called potential models use the samebasic principle as the gravity model, calculating population sizes and distancesbetween all places in the study area.

Suggested Readings: John M. Lowe and Ashish Sen, “Gravity Model Applications in HealthPlanning: Analysis of an Urban Hospital Market,” Journal of Regional Science, vol. 36 (1996); Si-Il Mun, “Transport Network and System of Cities,” Journal of Urban Economics, vol. 42 (1997).

Green belt. The allocation of a green belt, a land sector surrounding a majorcity within which development is strictly limited, was first proposed in Europeduring the early twentieth century. In the interwar years in London, new andimproved transportation systems allowed for expansion beyond the city limits.The response of the government was to create a green belt of approximately 30kilometers encircling the city. Within this green belt, there were to be no large-scale development projects. The land was to be used only for farming, recrea-tion, and the maintenance of open space.

The decision to create a green belt around London also prevented the cityfrom getting too large and experiencing urban sprawl, a problem that plaguescities in the United States. In 1947, the British passed the Town and CountryPlanning Act, which dictated that all major cities establish green belts similarto the one surrounding London.

In time, a number of other European cities enacted green belt legislation.For example, cities in Germany’s densely settled Ruhr industrial corridor havecreated green belts to limit the negative impact of power plants and manufac-turing complexes and to avoid the development of suburbs. Tokyo, Japan, alsodeveloped plans for a green belt surrounding the city. However, growth follow-ing the end of World War II quickly overtook the plan, and little evidence ofopen space can be found anywhere in the vast Tokyo metropolitan area.

European cities have successfully avoided the kind of urban sprawl found inmost cities in the United States by creating green belts. Yet, growth has notstopped. High-density development has taken place beyond the green belts inthe rural areas.

Suggested Readings: D. Burtenshow et al., The European City: A Western Perspective, NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1991; Hugh Clout, Europe’s Cities in the Late Twentieth Century,

Utrecht: Royal Dutch Geographical Society, 1994.

Green Revolution. New strains of rice and wheat were developed in the 1950sfor the purpose of increasing the yields of those crops. The rice hybrids, intro-

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duced first in the Philippines, were enormously successful in a number of re-gions. The resulting Green Revolution, as it is called, spread rapidly throughIndia, where yields of rice doubled in the 1960s.

The new rice hybrids require ample amounts of chemical fertilizer, regularuse of pesticides, and substantial amounts of water to ensure maximum plantgrowth. Conditions in the well-watered Ganges River Valley in northern Indiaare ideal for the new rice.

Other regions of southern and southeastern Asia also benefited from theGreen Revolution. However, many areas were not positively affected for sev-eral reasons. There were a few places that opted not to use the new hybridseeds. Other areas did not have sufficient water available to support the pro-cess. But the major reason for the limited effectiveness of the Green Revolu-tion was cost. The use of the hybrid rice involves considerable outlays ofmoney for fertilizer, pesticides, and water. Unfortunately, many regions in thedeveloping world do not have the monetary resources to afford the new hybridprocess. It is a cruel irony that countries most needing to increase grain yieldscannot take advantage of an agricultural process that was, from its inception,developed for them. Only about 2 percent of African agricultural activity in-volves use of Green Revolution hybrid seeds.

Another criticism of the Green Revolution centers on environmental degra-dation. Pesticides and fertilizers used in the rice-growing process remain in thesoil and, in time, rob it of its fertility. This is not unique to the Green Revolu-tion. Agriculturalists in the developed world have been aware of the serious-ness of soil degradation from pesticides and fertilizers for decades.

The Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR),a Washington, D.C., organization established as a monitoring agency for theGreen Revolution, tracks progress in agriculture with the help of 13 researchstations around the world. The CGIAR is working to eradicate the negative as-pects attributed to the Green Revolution and to ensure that more agriculturistsin the developing world will be able to take part in the process.

Suggested Readings: Edward C. Wolf, Worldwatch Paper #73: Beyond the Green Revolution:

New Approaches for Third World Agriculture, Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, October1986; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Web site, www.fao.org.

Greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and chlorofluoro-carbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere absorb incoming shortwave radiation fromthe sun. In time, the shortwave radiation is transformed into long-wave radia-tion, or sensible heat. In the early twentieth century, the gradual accumulationof higher volumes of the noted substances in the atmosphere is causing a mea-surable rise in average global temperature. Because the process is similar to thatin a greenhouse, the term greenhouse effect has been applied. In a greenhouse,shortwave solar rays penetrate the glass and are absorbed by materials insidethe greenhouse. The shortwave inputs change to long waves and radiate heat.The glass in the greenhouse traps the heat inside. Another example of the

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greenhouse effect is found in an automobile parked in the sun with its windowsclosed. After a few hours, the inside of the car will be much warmer than out-side.

Concern has been raised that increasing accumulations of carbon dioxide,the leading absorber of shortwave radiation, will have damaging effects glob-ally. The phenomenon of global warming is believed to be responsible for cli-matic change, the melting of the Antarctic ice cap, and the diminishment ofArctic sea ice. In addition, a gradual increase in sea level has been attributed tothe melting of high-latitude ice and the thermal expansion of seawater as itwarms. Proponents of the greenhouse effect and global warming theories con-tend that atmospheric conditions are in place to ensure global temperature in-creases throughout the twenty-first century.

Another process that has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the at-mosphere is deforestation. This happens in two ways. First, a cleared forest canno longer act as a carbon sink. That is, because trees are very effective ab-sorbers of carbon dioxide, every tree that is eliminated reduces the amount ofcarbon dioxide that can be absorbed from the atmosphere. Second, many ofthe trees felled in a deforestation project are burned, releasing carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have been accumulating in theatmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, in the late eigh-teenth century. Over time, as the industrialization process has increased its out-put, more greenhouse gases have been added. With the industrialization ofdeveloping countries increasing every year, the volume of greenhouse gasessent into the atmosphere will certainly expand.

The United Nations Environmental Programme predicts that by the year2025, the total carbon dioxide emissions from the developing world will equalthe output from the developed world. In the 1980s, the ratio of these outputswas 80 percent from the developed world and 20 percent from the developingworld.

Concern about global warming brought representatives from 171 countriesto the Kyoto (Japan) Climate Change Summit in 1997 to deal with this impor-tant environmental problem. The major outcome of the meeting was theKyoto Protocol, a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the twenty-first century. Although every developed country was required to reduce emis-sions by a specified amount, the developing countries were not required to doso. The search continues for a viable global plan to effectively reduce green-house gas emissions.

Suggested Readings: William P. Cunningham and Barbara W. Saigo, Environmental Science: A

Global Concern, 4th ed., Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1997; Ian D. Whyte, Climatic Change

and Human Society, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.

Gross national product/Gross domestic product. Gross national product(GNP) and gross domestic product (GDP) are measures of economic systems.GDP is the total value of goods and services produced within a country and

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usually reported on a yearly basis. GNP, a measure seen more frequently in eco-nomic geography, is GDP plus income from labor and capital accrued fromother countries minus payments to those working abroad. Both measures areroutinely converted to a per capita form that yields a more meaningful figure.Both measures may be adjusted, as well, to reflect the purchasing power of thecurrency in a particular country.

One glance at a table of values of GNP/cap (per capita) for countries and re-gions of the world reveals some astounding inequities. First, more than 80 per-cent of GNP/cap is held by only 20 percent of the world’s population, living inthe rich countries in the developed world. The range in value of GNP/cap isalso indicative of the extraordinary differences in wealth. The United States’GNP/cap in the late 1990s was more than $28,000. Several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa during that same time period had GNP/cap values of less than$400. These figures are a clear indication of the development gap, the differ-ence between the core (the urban-industrialized countries) and the periphery(the less-developed countries). Indications over past decades point to an in-crease in the development gap. It appears that the old adage “The rich getricher and the poor get poorer,” is generally accurate.

Inequities in GNP/cap are also found within countries. For instance, theGNP/cap in the highly urbanized Megalopolis of the northeastern UnitedStates is significantly higher than in the southern states of the MississippiRiver delta. Some of the highest internal disparities are found in oil-producingcountries in the Middle East. A small percentage of individuals at the top ofthe system have exceedingly high incomes, whereas most of the populace hasvery little.

GNP/cap in combination with other economic and social measures can beequally revealing. For instance, there is a positive relationship betweenGNP/cap and energy consumption by country. Higher energy consumption isan attribute of the affluent developed countries where GNP/cap is also high.Conversely, countries with low GNP/cap will not have the means to purchaseenergy for productive purposes. A negative relationship is found in a compari-son of GNP/cap and percentage of workforce in agriculture. In this case, highGNP/cap relates to low percentages of workers in agriculture. Yet, agriculturalproduction in developed countries is the highest in the world. This is due to in-puts of mechanization and high technology, affordable only in countries with asubstantial GNP/cap.

Both GDP and GNP, and their per capita forms, are widely used as measuresof development. They are, however, most accurate as measures in the devel-oped countries, where data on virtually every aspect of the economy is avail-able and measured. Such levels of accuracy are not generally achieved in mostdeveloping countries. Also, GDP and GNP do not account for capital gener-ated in the so-called informal sector (businesses that operate outside the gov-ernmental structure) in the developing world, and in some of these countries

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the informal sector may represent a higher overall monetary value than the for-mal, measurable sector.

Suggested Readings: Brian J. Berry et al., The Global Economy in Transition, Upper SaddleRiver, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997; P. R. Gregory and R. C. Stuart, Comparative Economic Systems,

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

Growth pole. The concept of the growth pole was devised by the Frenchscholar Francois Perroux in the 1950s. The term is associated with economicdevelopment and refers to a center of extraordinary industrial growth focusedon a particularly dynamic single firm leading in growth. The firm in the centeris referred to as a propulsive industry, the clear leader in that industrial sector.

The economic situation afforded by a growth pole results in (1) the accumu-lation of positive factors of production, including entrepreneurial leadership,skilled labor, and abundant capital, and (2) economic growth at the expense ofthe hinterland, or service area, from which it draws its positive growth factors.

In theory, the vast accumulation of wealth in the growth pole will graduallybe dispersed throughout the larger region. It is suggested that the positive attri-bute of this spread effect, as it is called, will take over 20 years. For this reason,such scholars as Swedish economist and sociologist Gunnar Myrdal (1898–1987) have insisted that government intervention is necessary to ensure thatthe redistribution of growth pole wealth to the outlying areas be legislated andregulated.

The growth pole concept can operate on any geographical scale. For in-stance, a single successful industrial plant in a small town can attract the posi-tive economic factors of production in the same manner as giant firms likeGeneral Motors and IBM. The growth pole theme applies to regional levels aswell. The Ruhr industrial district in Germany can be considered a growth pole.Also, Japan’s highly industrialized Inland Sea corridor from Tokyo west to thesteelmaking complexes in northern Kyushu is an important growth pole.Megalopolis, the extensive metropolitan area of the northeastern UnitedStates, is another. All of these regions are comprised of perhaps hundreds of in-dividual firms (propulsive industries) that are in themselves growth poles.

Finally, the growth pole concept operates at the global level in the core-periphery model of economic development. The core, in this sense, takes onthe role of a vast accumulator of capital, labor, and in fact, all the positive eco-nomic factors of production needed to maintain its growth. This is one of thepremises of Wallerstein’s world-system analysis, developed by social scientistImmanuel Wallerstein.

Suggested Readings: Peter Dicken, Global Shift: Transforming the World Economy, New York:Guilford Press, 1998; Tim Unwin, Atlas of World Development, New York: John Wiley & Sons,1995.

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Hagerstrand, Torsten (1916–). Torsten Hagerstrand is the most prominentgeographer in diffusion studies. His contributions to this important area ofhuman geography laid the foundation for decades of work in diffusion that fol-lowed. Hagerstrand’s doctoral dissertation, “Innovation Diffusion as a SpatialProcess,” completed at the Universityof Lund, Sweden, in 1953, is a classicstudy in the field.

The work is particularly importantin diffusion studies because of his in-clusion of mathematical and statisti-cal models that provided a soundbasis for making predictions. Perhapsits greatest importance is Hager-strand’s insistence that diffusion stud-ies emphasize process, the sequenceof events that clearly identify the keysteps occurring in space and time thathelp to explain an outcome. That is,if an innovation begins at Point Aand is later noted at Point B, what isthe sequence of occurrences that ex-plain this diffusion? Process is an im-portant approach in geography, andit has precedent in studies of the Torsten Hagerstrand. Source: Courtesy of Torsten Hagerstrand.

earth’s surface all the way back to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus andother significant contributors to the discipline.

Hagerstrand’s dissertation was translated into English in 1967 at the heightof the Quantitative Revolution. The work became an important document inAmerican and British geography because of its use of mathematical and statis-tical models. His subsequent work on location theory incorporated the processapproach that marked his diffusion studies.

Hagerstrand also pioneered the field of time geography. In the 1960s heidentified and mapped the spatial behavior of individuals in their daily travelsthrough space and time. He also contributed meaningfully to the fields ofurban geography and quantitative cartography. Hagerstrand correctly pointedout that individuals are more likely to be an accepter of an innovation if theyare closer to its origin. This idea relates to the established concept of distancedecay, important in understanding aspects of spatial interaction.

Suggested Readings: Richard Morrill, Spatial Diffusion, vol. 10, Scientific Geography Series,Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1988; Richard K. Ormrod, “Local Context and Innovation Diffusionin a Well-Connected World,” Economic Geography, vol. 66 (1990).

Heartland theory. See Geopolitics and Mackinder, Halford J.

Herodotus (484–ca. 425 B.C.). Herodotus, a Greek, was, like most earlythinkers, a universal scholar—one who observed, commented on, and theo-rized about all activities in view. He described places and people in the knownworld of his time. He was a field researcher and traveled extensively in the re-gion of the Mediterranean.

Herodotus has been called the father of both history and ethnography (thestudy of cultural traits of people). Geographers claim him as one of their ownbecause he asked geographical questions and engaged in research that wasclearly within the purview of the discipline. Sound in his thinking, Herodotusbelieved that geography provided the physical background for historical eventsand that the geography of a place changed through time. Ideas of this form arekey components in contemporary historical geography.

Herodotus may well be considered the father of environmental awareness.He wrote of his concern about soil loss in the agricultural fields of Greece at anearly time. His concern was that soil erosion from wind and runoff followingrainfall would gradually decrease soil fertility for future agricultural use. This is,of course, an important environmental concern in the modern era.

Herodotus speculated on the development of the Nile River delta. He theo-rized that winter winds from Europe forced the sun to retreat southward. As thesun moved south, it pulled the Nile waters with it. In the summer, the windsshifted and the sun again moved northward and the water in the Nile Riverswelled to its annual high point. With the water came particulate matter thatwas eventually deposited and extended the delta farther into the Mediter-ranean Sea. In time, Herodotus was proven wrong; his was a false theory. But it

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is nonetheless important, because it exemplified a process explanation, an ap-proach that is very powerful in geographical analysis.

Suggested Readings: George Kish, A Source Book in Geography, Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 1978; Geoffrey J. Martin and Preston E. James, All Possible Worlds: A History of

Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Hierarchical diffusion. See Expansion diffusion.


High-tech corridors. The high-technology industries have tended to locate inwell-defined concentrations in areas that come to be known as high-tech cor-ridors. Extensive research and development departments manned by scientists,communications experts, engineers, and skilled technicians support these com-panies. The high-technology sector of the economy includes firms that special-ize in the production of electronic components, computers and peripheralequipment, communications equipment, biotechnology products, and somepharmaceuticals. From the listing of industry types, it is clear that the high-technology industrial sector is found almost exclusively in the developedworld. However, many components used in high-technology industries, such ascomputer chips, are produced in the developing world. Despite this fact, it isthe high-technology firms in the core that derive the greatest profit from thesale of their finished product.

In the computer and electronics fields, a number of regional concentrationshave been established in the United States. The favored location for thesehigh-tech corridors is close to research universities and sources of skilled laborand away from areas where unionization is strong. Also, high-tech industrieswant locations that have a good quality of life and the availability of venturecapital to launch and support their dynamic business.

Some of the high-tech corridors in the United States include Silicon Valleynear San Jose, California; Silicon Forest near Seattle, Washington; the NorthCarolina Research Triangle Park complex in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hillarea, and Route 128 circling Boston. High-tech centers have also developed inCanada, in British Columbia and near the cities of Toronto and Ottawa. High-tech corridors are found in a number of European locations and in Japan. Thereis also an important high-tech corridor near Bangalor, India.

Highly concentrated, these corridors have been characterized as techno-poles, centers containing propulsive industries that are exceptionally successfuland are leaders in their fields. The techno-pole identifier is analogous to thenotion of the growth pole, long a part of the conceptual base of economic ge-ography.

Suggested Readings: Judith Alfrey and Catherine Clark, The Landscape of Industry, London:Routledge, 1993; Sharon Kellerman, Telecommunications and Geography, New York: John Wiley& Sons, 1993.

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Hinterland. The original meaning of the word hinterland was associated withcoastal locations and specified the service area landward of a port. Hinterland isa German word that translates as “behind (hinter) land.” The use of the termhas expanded to cover the service area of virtually any settlement.

The notion of the hinterland is implicitly a part of both von Thunen’s landuse model and Christaller’s central place theory. The areas adjacent to thecentral places in both works are characterized as hinterlands, or spheres of in-fluence, of the central places. Other terms that refer to a hinterland are tribu-tary region and trade area. In urban geography, the term hinterland, in mostcases, has been replaced with the more contemporary term urban field. It maybe noted, as well, that the term nodal region is similar in concept to hinterland.

In von Thunen’s model, developed in the early 1800s by German economistJohann Heinrich von Thunen, the hinterland included concentric zones sur-rounding the market center. The center provided all goods and services neededin the hinterland and, in turn, was the market for all commodities produced inthe hinterland. Von Thunen’s model provides the most straightforward exam-ple of the center–hinterland relationship. Christaller’s central place theory,developed by twentieth-century German economic geographer WalterChristaller, adds a new dimension to the hinterland notion. Christaller dis-cussed the functions in an extensive area containing many centers, each withits own hinterland. People living on the boundary between two hinterlandshad the option of traveling to either one of the centers for needed goods andservices. They could be said to be located near or on the line of indifference be-tween the two centers.

In a metropolitan center such as Paris, London, Tokyo, or Chicago, the hin-terland is quite extensive because of their population size and numbers andtypes of functions. The world’s paramount nodal center in terms of functions,corporate headquarters, and financial leadership is New York City. It is not in-correct to say that, depending on functions unique to New York City, its hin-terland is the entire world.

The hinterland idea has also been applied to the core-periphery concept. Inthis context, the core represents the nodal center and the periphery its hinter-land. Clearly, use of the term hinterland has been greatly extended from its orig-inal meaning as the land adjacent to a port.

Suggested Readings: Brian Goodall, The Facts on File Dictionary of Human Geography, NewYork: Facts on File, 1987; J. N. Marshall, Services and Space: Aspects of Urban and Regional Devel-

opment, London: Longman, 1995.

Historical geography. The term historical geography has been used in a numberof ways in the past and in recent years has come to mean the reconstruction ofthe geographies of past times. For instance, a geographer may analyze and re-port on aspects of the current industrial geography of Chicago, identifying in-dustry types and noting their location, number of employees, product line,markets, and a host of other potential topics.

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If the study was focused on the industrial geography of Chicago in 1900, thegeographer could do essentially the same kind of study, ask essentially the samequestions, and prepare a written work reflective of the analysis. There are twomajor differences in the two studies: (1) the 1900 research could not be done inperson, so to speak, because time has passed and there is no opportunity to visitindustrial sites and observe their operation firsthand; and (2) the researcherwould have to rely wholly on historical documents, data collections, photo-graphs, plans, drawings, and business records that were preserved. If some ofthe physical plant was still standing, it would be useful to visit the site; theremay be physical evidence of industrial processes long abandoned. For the his-torical geographer, there is a certain measure of excitement researching thepast to create a picture of what a place was like and how it functioned.

Earlier applications of the term historical geography were to geography’s rolein history. Herodotus, the eminent ancient Greek scholar, contended that ge-ography provided the physical background for historical events. He also notedthat the geography of a place changes through time. This is another example ofhow the term historical geography has been applied. Both of these applicationshave merit: all historical events occur in places, and the geography of a place—its physical and cultural attributes—changes through time.

In recent years, historical geographers have established close ties with histo-rians and other social scientists. The favored approach to historical geographicstudies has been to focus on particular time periods and re-create their geogra-phy. This approach produces what is called a cross-sectional view of the placeat the selected time. The study of the industrial geography of Chicago in 1900would be a cross section. This notion may be extended to include a series ofcross sections of a place. The researcher may want to gain insights intoChicago’s industrial geography before and after World War I, during the GreatDepression of the 1930s, following World War II, and at selected periods fromthe 1950s to the present. Comparison of the cross sections would revealchanges that took place over the century. The research could then continuewith questions about how and why the industrial geography changed. Specula-tions and hypotheses centering on the process of change may validly be enter-tained.

Historical geography, like cultural geography, remained unaffected duringthe era of the Quantitative Revolution in the United States. Although quan-titative and statistical techniques could have been applied in a reintroductionof a past geography, there were few studies that did so.

Suggested Readings: Ralph H. Brown, Historical Geography in the United States, New York:Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1948; R. J. Johnston et al., The Dictionary of Human Geography, Ox-ford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1993.

HIV/AIDS. In 1981, it was firmly established that a new and deadly virus hadestablished itself within the human community. The virus that causes AIDS isthe human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and the disease produced by the

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virus is called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). As the namessuggest, AIDS destroys the immune system, the disease-fighting centers in thehuman body. When the immune system is adversely affected, the body is essen-tially defenseless against other potentially deadly diseases, such as tuberculosisand pneumonia.

HIV/AIDS has reached pandemic proportions since it first came into thehuman population. More than 20 years after it was first identified, no cure hasbeen found, although certain treatments can lengthen the time before an HIVinfection becomes full-blown AIDS.

The AIDS virus is passed from source to recipient in an exchange of bodilyfluids. Particularly effective is contact with the blood of an infected individual.As such, high vulnerability to acquiring the virus is associated with engaging insexual activity with an infected person or receiving a blood transfusion inad-vertently containing the virus.

In 2000, best estimates of people infected with HIV/AIDS stood at 50 mil-lion worldwide, of whom 10 million were children. In addition, 90 percent ofthese cases were found in Sub-Saharan African countries. In the recent decade,2 million deaths per year have been attributed to AIDS. In some developingcountries, life expectancy has declined and child mortality rates have in-creased.

The virus originated in two regions in Sub-Saharan Africa: the GuineaHighlands in West Africa and the East African Lake District. Researchers con-clude that the virus was acquired through the practice of injecting monkeyblood as an aphrodisiac. Once the virus became established in humans, its dif-fusion was rapid. In Africa, the disease followed transportation routes, and itsincidence rates were highest in rapidly growing major cities.

When AIDS first appeared in the United States, two apparently unrelatedcohort groups were most affected: gay men and Haitians. Further research shedlight on this mystery. In the 1960s, a number of Haitians immigrated to Africaas government workers. When they returned to Haiti, the disease came withthem. In the case of gay men, investigations revealed that Europeans visitingAfrica brought the virus to England and other places on the continent. Fromthis source, gay men in the United States were eventually infected.

Once established in the United States, the virus spread quickly through gaycommunities in large cities such as San Francisco and New York. The diseasefiltered down the urban hierarchy and into the rural areas. By the mid-1990s,every state in the United States reported cases of HIV/AIDS. However, as in-sidious as the disease is in the United States, its numbers cannot compare withthose of Africa. For instance, Botswana and Zimbabwe have the world’s highestper capita incidence of HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is also found in Latin Americaand Asia. Bangkok, Thailand, is experiencing particularly high rates of infec-tion. Researchers had hoped that the pandemic would not reach the vast Asianpopulations. That hope has been dashed. Even China and India, with a total of2.3 billion people, are reporting HIV/AIDS infections. China, India, and Thai-

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land began experiencing HIV and AIDS in the 1990s. The disease is rapidly in-creasing. In December 2002, the incidence of HIV in the Asia-Pacific regionreached over 7 million. India has 4 million cases, and China could reach 11million by 2010.

Especially insidious is the fact that an individual may carry HIV for years be-fore any overt symptoms are noted. This means that an unaware carrier maypotentially infect many other people.

Researchers hope that in time a cure for AIDS will be found and that a pre-ventative inoculation can be developed. Short of these breakthroughs, it is cer-tain that millions of people will die of this disease.

Suggested Readings: Ann Hwang, “AIDS Has Arrived in India and China,” World Watch,

January–February 2001; “A Turning Point for AIDS?” The Economist, July 15, 2000.

Human Development Index. The United Nations Development Programmedeveloped and first published the Human Development Index (HDI) in 1990.Since its inception, the HDI has become the most used index for comparingcountries and regions.

Development scholars had long attempted to derive an objective measure tocompare the developed and developing countries. It is well understood that de-veloping countries lag far behind their counterparts in the industrial world inthe categories of income, level of affluence, productivity, and a host of othereconomic and social measures. But the question was continually raised aboutthe correctness of applying measures that clearly fit the developed countries tothose in the developing world. For instance, did it make sense to use measuresof industrial productivity when making comparisons with a country that hadlittle or no industry?

The HDI uses only four basic variables within the three categories of demog-raphy, social ranking, and economic level. The four variables are life ex-pectancy at birth, educational level attained, degree of literacy, and grossdomestic product per capita. The highest possible score that a country can at-tain is 1.000 and the lowest is 0.000. It must be noted that the United Nationshas, on occasion, modified the HDI by assigning weightings to each of the vari-ables. As such, the index cannot be said to be completely objective. Yet, it is avery useful measure for comparisons.

In the late 1990s, world HDI was 0.72, whereas the developed countries col-lectively registered 0.93, considerably higher than the world average. Develop-ing countries, on the other hand, registered 0.63, significantly lower. If HDIsfor the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa are averaged, the result is 0.38, farbelow the figure for all developing countries.

The African country Niger has a low HDI and a population that is expectedto double in the next two decades. Life expectancy at birth is 47 years, farbelow the developing country average of 63 years. Niger’s literacy rate is 14percent, which points to a severe lack of formal education. Only 48 percent ofthe population has access to safe drinking water. Finally, Niger’s gross national


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product (GNP) per capita is about $200. Many other countries are living insimilar conditions of deprivation.

HDI values will be watched carefully in the future. Their value in compar-isons of countries and regions will indicate to what degree the developingcountries are closing the development gap.

Suggested Readings: Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development Web site, www.oecd.org (the goal of this organization is to mea-sure development progress); Allen C. Kelley, “The Human Development Index: ‘Handle WithCare,’ ” Population and Development Review, vol. 17 (1991); United Nations Development Pro-gramme, Human Development Report, New York: Oxford University Press, annual.

Human geography. Simply stated, human geography considers all aspects ofthe greater discipline of geography except those concerned directly withphysical geography and technical areas, such as cartography. In most coun-tries, geography has been split into two basic camps: physical and human.The split occurred at the end of the nineteenth century and during the firstfew years of the twentieth century. It is ironic that a split of this proportionhappened so soon after some of the leaders in geography in the late nine-teenth century were convinced that the discipline could find a place in uni-versities if it championed the theme of being the science that studies theinterface between nature and culture. Today this intellectual position is re-ferred to as human–environment interaction.

Human geography is a very broad field that includes a varied and diverserange of subdisciplines. Among the many geographies included are agricultural,behavioral, cultural, economic, elective, historical, industrial, political, popu-lation, rural, social, and transportation. Within all of these subdisciplines arefound three common approaches to research: (1) spatial analysis; (2) the inter-relationship of places; and (3) regional synthesis in varying forms.

Essentially, human geographers ask “where” and “why” questions regardinghuman activities. For instance, where are the major centers of aircraft manu-facturing and why are they located there? To what states did African Ameri-cans migrate out of the southern United States and why? Human geographersmight also consider the global pattern of population density. A glance at aworld population map shows three major population concentrations: East Asia,South Asia, and the European littoral, reaching east to the Ural Mountains.These three centers of population contain about one-half of the world’s people.The human geographer would ask why these concentrations occurred and whatconsequences emerge given their presence.

The nineteenth-century German geographer Friedrich Ratzel was one ofthe earliest geographers to write specifically about human geography. Ratzelproposed that culture groups be the topic of systematic study. In his two-volume work, Anthropogeographie, Ratzel considered the influence of thephysical environment on culture groups (in volume 1, 1882) and then lookedmore closely at the attributes of the culture groups themselves without con-

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sidering physical impacts (in volume 2, 1891). Another early exponent ofhuman geography was Paul Vidal de la Blache, the noted French scholar. Inthe early twentieth century, he wrote an important book on the principles ofhuman geography, Principles of Human Geography (1922).

Many geographers lament the split that has separated human geographyfrom physical geography. Although the separation is justified as an example ofspecialization of effort found in every discipline, in geography the split is moresignificant. Geography is a holistic, synthesizing, and integrating discipline.The examples of the “where” and “why” questions asked by human geographersinvariably enter the realm of physical geography with the “where” questions.Further, the “why” question may elicit aspects of physical geography that pro-vide the soundest explanation. A recent move in the discipline suggests the de-velopment of an environmental geography that would focus on the interface ofphysical geography and human geography. Conceptually this would be a returnto the ideas of such late-nineteenth-century scholars as Ratzel, Halford J.Mackinder, and William Morris Davis. It is the geography they envisioned.

Suggested Readings: George J. Demko et al., Why in the World? Adventures in Geography, NewYork: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1992; R. J. Johnston, The Nature of Human Geography, Oxford,U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1996.

Human Poverty Index. The Human Poverty Index (HPI), published by theUnited Nations Development Programme, focuses attention on the poorest ofpeople in each country. The HPI is reported as a percentage of the populationof any country that are the most deprived of basic human essentials. The indexconsiders longevity, the ability to read and write, and three additional variablesthat indicate proximity to basic health needs: (1) presence of medical facilities;(2) access to safe drinking water; and (3) the percentage of malnourished chil-dren under age five.

When these values are combined, the outcome is in the form of a percentageof the population that exists at the lowest economic levels. Countries in thedeveloped world have low percentages of their population living at substandardlevels. Yet, even the richest of countries has some of its people in this unfortu-nate circumstance. For instance, in 1994 Canada and the United States hadHPI percentages of 12.0 and 16.5, respectively. Costa Rica, perhaps the mostprogressive of all Latin American countries, had an HPI of 4.1 in that sameyear.

Not surprisingly, some of the highest HPIs are in countries of Sub-SaharanAfrica. Index percentages in the 40s and 50s were not uncommon in this re-gion in the late 1990s. Burkina Faso (58), Niger (62), Sierra Leone (58), andEthiopia (56) were the African countries with the most serious conditions ofdeprivation.

A cruel irony lies within the deprivation existing in countries that have highpercentages of their population living so far below even the most basic levels.The irony is that these countries will experience the greatest population in-

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creases in the next 50 years. World population is expected to reach 8.5 billionby 2050, and most of the increases will be within countries in the developingworld, which are already heavily taxed to keep up with today’s demands.

The African country of Burkina Faso, for example, had a population of 12million in the late 1990s, and that number was expected to double in 24 years.Its infant mortality rate is 94 per thousand, an indicator of inadequate child-birth delivery systems and poor sanitation conditions. Only 42 percent of thepopulation has access to safe drinking water. Life expectancy at birth is 47years, compared to 63 years, the average for all developing countries. BurkinaFaso is just one of many developing countries living in excessively poor condi-tions. HPI is a measure that will be monitored regularly in the future to indi-cate changes in the quality of life in the poorest of countries.

Suggested Readings: David R. Phillips and Yola Verhasselt, Health and Development, NewYork: Routledge, 1994; UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children, United Nations, annual.

Humanistic geography. The approach of the humanistic geographer is to givecenter stage to human awareness, human inventiveness, and individual percep-tion of place. Humanistic geography is somewhat connected with early Frenchhuman geography, but it has a closer tie with contemporary social geography.

Humanistic geography emerged in the 1970s as a reaction against the mech-anistic approaches of the Quantitative Revolution. A key question asked byhumanistic geographers is “why do people act as they do?” Implicit in this ques-tion is a searching for attitudes, perceptions, and awareness in humans thathelp to explain how they behave, individually and collectively, in the spatialcontext. An important reversal of emphasis occurred in humanistic geographyfrom the notion of the “spatial confinement of people and societies” to “onesconcerned with the human and social construction of space” (Johnston, 1986,p. 208).

Yi-Fu Tuan, an early advocate of humanistic geography, suggested thatachieving a more thorough understanding of humans was the main goal of thediscipline. Tuan also compared the scientific approach to the study of humans,which paid little attention to the role of human awareness, and the approach ofthe humanistic geographer, which emphasizes human awareness and links it tospatial activities. Tuan, originally from China, was a longtime geography pro-fessor at the University of Minnesota and is now retired.

Humanistic geographical approaches were radically different from that ofthe accepted geographies of the 1970s. Physical geographers especially werecritical of the new forms of explanation offered by humanistic geographers. Inthe new approach, empirically based hypotheses supported by analysis and ob-jectivity were replaced by subjective conclusions and methodologies that wereseen as intellectually suspect.

Humanistic geographers address the role of evaluating human awareness ofthe environment and consequent activities within it. Most important, human-


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istic geography emphasizes the importance of the subjective view and the mer-its of the individual human being existing within spatial bounds.

Suggested Readings: J. N. Entrikin, “Contemporary Humanism in Geography,” Annals of the

Association of American Geographers, vol. 66 (1976); Yi-Fu Tuan, “Humanistic Geography,” An-

nals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 66 (1976).

Hunting and gathering. As the glaciers receded at the end of the Ice Age some12,000 years ago, small groups of humans began to migrate into newly openedlands. As the temperatures began a slow but steady increase, plant and animalcommunities expanded onto previously frozen land. The human groups thatinhabited these regions are called hunter-gatherers. Fishing may be added totheir food-acquiring practices.

The end of the Ice Age marked the end of the Paleolithic period, or OldStone Age. Tools were rudimentary. Simple stone blades and pointed spear-heads were primitive but effective in the hands of the experienced hunter.There was also a proliferation of plants and animals in regions inhabited bysmall roving bands.

Family groups were necessarily limited in number. Smaller groups hadgreater mobility in the tracking of migrating animals and the search for season-ally ripening plants. The number of children in these groups was also mini-mized, because too many dependent children could slow the group in its nearlycontinuous movement in search of food.

In time, the inventory of tools improved for at least two reasons: (1) groupencounters resulted in the sharing of tools developed by each group; and (2)movement into new environments called for the development of tools suitablefor that area. There is even evidence that regular trade routes were establishedbefore the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. Trading of clothingitems, animal skins, flint, and obsidian have been documented in southern Eu-rope. As tool making improved and group contact resulted in the acquisition ofcommodities and the understanding of new processes and the ability to procurefood more efficiently, populations began to increase. It is also thought thatgroups living in regions with a significant number of lakes were able to estab-lish a quasi-sedentary life style based on fishing augmented by hunting andgathering.

Anthropologists contend that human social systems have evolved throughfour distinct stages. Hunting and gathering represents the first stage in this se-quence. The term social system implies the development of a clearly identifiablecultural base, a feature that certainly was present in the hunter-gatherer groups.The remaining three stages in the anthropological model are identified byseminomadic groups engaged in subsistence or slash-and-burn agriculture (seeExtensive agriculture), settled villages based on agriculture or animal herding,and complex social systems that used plows and irrigation techniques in fieldagricultural systems.


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In the contemporary world there are still some culture groups that use theearly hunting and gathering methods. Among them are the few remainingAlaskan Inuit that have not settled in villages, the Australian aborigines, andthe African Bushmen. These groups represent a very small percentage of totalworld population.

Suggested Readings: John G. Galaty and Douglas L. Johnson, The World of Pastoralism: Herd-

ing Systems in Comparative Perspective, New York: Guilford Press, 1990; University of Evansville(Ind.), “Exploring Ancient World Cultures,” Web site, http://eawc.evansville.edu.

Hydrologic cycle. The hydrologic cycle tracks the worldwide transfer and trans-formation of moisture in its various forms (water, water vapor, ice, snow)

through the continuingprocess of evaporation,transpiration, precipi-tation, soil absorption,and runoff. Globally,the cycle is always inbalance, but at the re-gional level, there maybe a deficiency of mois-ture (more moisture istransferred out of theregion than is received)or a surplus (more isretained). Also, short-and long-term atmos-pheric changes, such asEl Niño and La Niña,can alter a region’s in-put of moisture.

The hydrologic cyclehas been characterized

as chaotic in its operation. In 1988 the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experi-ment (GEWEX) was established. GEWEX is part of the World Climate Re-search Program set up to study climate change. GEWEX and other atmosphericmonitoring programs are important sources of information in this era of globalwarming and unusual weather patterns (see Greenhouse effect).

A description of the hydrologic cycle begins with the oceans, which contain97 percent of the earth’s water. The oceans are continually evaporating waterfrom their surface. Evaporation also occurs in much lower volumes from landareas and freshwater bodies. Another source of moisture is received from plantsthrough the process of transpiration. Moisture from ocean evaporation ac-counts for 86 percent of the total; land, freshwater evaporation, and transpira-tion contribute the remaining 14 percent.

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Hydrologic cycle. Source: Geography: An Integrated Approach, by David Waugh. Re-produced by permission of Nelson Thornes.

Evaporated moisture is carried aloft and forms as clouds. When the watervapor cools in its ascent, condensation occurs and precipitation begins in theform of rain, sleet, or snowfall. The hydrologic cycle continues with the returnof moisture to the surface.

Most of the precipitation (78 percent) returns to the ocean surfaces, primar-ily in the equatorial and low-latitude belt. The remaining 22 percent falls onland areas, where it can take a number of different directions. Some of thewater collects at the surface in lakes, rivers, and wetlands and is eventually usedby humans and animals or absorbed by vegetation. Some water filters throughto subterranean aquifers and is stored as groundwater. This water may be ac-cessed by wells for human use. Finally, some water returns to the oceans as sur-face or underground runoff.

The operation of the hydrologic cycle can be affected by human activity.More people making greater demands on existing water supplies can have animpact on groundwater storage. For example, irrigation agriculture in theAmerican Southwest uses large amounts of groundwater, and in some years, therecharge from precipitation is less than the amount taken. The OgallalaAquifer in the Midwest and Great Plains is a vast underground source of water.Over the years, hundreds of wells bringing water to the surface primarily foragriculture have significantly lowered the level of the aquifer. In time, a seriouscutback in agricultural activity might be required.

The demise of the topical rain forests, an important source of transpiredmoisture, has had a direct effect on the hydrologic cycle. Further clearing of therain forests could change weather patterns poleward of the equator.

Suggested Readings: William H. Calvin, “The Great Climate Flip-Flop,” Atlantic Monthly,

vol. 281, 1998; Earth Systems Web site, www.earthsystems.org (monitors environmental situa-tions).

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Industrial inertia. In physics, inertia refers to the tendency of a body to remainat rest unless acted on by some external force. For example, a block of woodwill remain in place on the garage floor until someone moves it. In economicgeography the term industrial inertia refers to industrial plants that remain inplace even though the original advantages of their site are no longer applica-ble. There are compelling reasons for an industrial operation to remain in placeeven though it may be costing more to do so. Among them are the costs to ini-tially build the facility. In addition, the costs to move from the present site to amore optimal location may be too high. An industrial plant has ties to the localarea, the labor force, and nearby plants with which it does business. Other ex-ternal factors advantageous to the present location may also compel manage-ment to remain in place. Finally, agglomeration factors may be present. Theplant may be one of several plants that have located close to each other for mu-tual advantage. The loss of these positive locational attributes must be weighedagainst the prospect of moving the plant to gain other advantages.

Inertia is a powerful force in determining whether a plant will remain inplace or move. If the plant cannot be moved and the present location has lostits previous advantage, it may be necessary for the operation to shift to otherproducts. The steelmaking industry is a case in point. Since the 1970s, theJapanese steelmaking industry has surpassed that of the United States in prod-uct quality and lower price. Many plants in the United States were subse-quently closed, and some steel companies diversified into other industries. Thehistorically famous steelmaking city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was particu-

larly affected in this era. The city shifted its heavy focus on steel to electronicsand high technology. Cincinnati, Ohio, also shifted to a more diversified eco-nomic structure when its role as a port city for agricultural products declined.

In the automobile industry, the use of robotics on assembly lines downgradedthe importance of a local skilled labor force, which had been an important ex-ternal factor contributing to the inertia of plants. Another innovation workingagainst plant inertia is the so-called on-time distribution system of parts andcomponents used in production. This new system has reduced the need for ex-cessive on-site inventories. Robotics and the on-time distribution system haveallowed plants to function more as assembly points and to disperse to more-advantageous locations. Despite these factors, the decision to move an indus-trial plant must be very compelling. Whenever possible, it is economicallymore feasible to adapt an operation than to move.

Suggested Readings: Stephan S. Birdsall and John W. Florin, Regional Landscapes of the United

States and Canada, 4th ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992; H. D. Watts, Industrial Geogra-

phy, New York: Longman Scientific/Wiley, 1987.

Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution occurred as a long-termtransition from small-scale crafts industries to the use of machinery and mass-production techniques. This revolution began in Great Britain about 1750 andlasted for approximately 100 years. During this period, industrial processeschanged dramatically, a rural-to-urban shift of population began the era ofgreat cities, and important advances were made in health care, transportation,and agriculture.

The Industrial Revolution was supported by the mechanization of trans-portation systems. James Watt refined the steam engine and made it a morefuel-efficient machine (1778). Watt’s invention was crucial to the growth ofthe Industrial Revolution. His steam engine was used in iron making, to keepthe ovens hot. This allowed more iron to be produced, which in turn was usedto make the machines that accelerated the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution was preceded and supported by advances in agri-culture that began in the late seventeenth century. In turn, the Industrial Rev-olution produced a great number of manufactured items, including the tractor,which revolutionized agriculture (see Agricultural Revolution).

In the growing cities, the Industrial Revolution provided jobs for workersmoving from rural areas. With newfound wealth from the sale of manufacturedgoods, cities were able to add sewer systems and greatly improve sanitation lev-els. Medical technology benefited from all of these improvements as well.

The second stage in the demographic transition began during the IndustrialRevolution. Improvements in sanitation and medical delivery systems in thecities resulted in the steady decline in crude death rates, and total populationbegan to increase.

The new factory system of mass production added significant efficiency tothe manufacturing process. As a result, the cost of goods produced was loweredand more people could afford to purchase needed items. Evidence suggests that


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couples married at earlier ages in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolu-tion, and more children were born in this era.

The Industrial Revolution spread from Great Britain to continental Europein the nineteenth century and then to Russia and Japan. North America beganin earnest to build an industrial base at the end of the nineteenth century. By1900, the European countries collectively accounted for more than 75 percentof world industrial production. Europe would hold this leadership until thepost–World War II period, when the United States and then Japan emerged asthe dominant producers. In recent years, industrial expansion has moved to thedeveloping countries. Some of the operations in the developing world arebased within transnational corporations.

Suggested Readings: David Gibbs and Michael Healey, “Industrial Geography and the Envi-ronment,” Applied Geography, vol. 17 (1997); Jon Stobart, “Geography and Industrialization,1701–1760,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 21 (1996).

Infant mortality rate. Development researchers pay very close attention tothe infant mortality rate (IMR) in regions and countries. The IMR measuresthe number of deaths per 1,000 live births in the first year of life and is per-haps the best index available of socioeconomic levels. IMR is specified in ta-bles of demographic information as a whole number. For instance, in 1999 theIMR for the world was 57. So, for every 1,000 live births, 57 infants did notreach their first birthday.

The IMR for the developing world in that year was 68, somewhat higherthan the world figure. However, the largest difference in IMR is seen in a com-parison with the developed world, where the figure was 8 in 1999.

The difference in IMR between these two global regions is striking. The gapin IMR is another indicator of the significant disparities in development thatare seen globally. IMR is a key index of development because it is an indicatorof the nutrition levels, sanitation systems, medical delivery systems (access todoctors, availability of hospitals, medical stations, medicines, and preventivemeasures), and housing. IMR is also closely tied to the health and situation ofthe mother. In many cases, expectant mothers are engaged in manual labor, aremalnourished, and do not receive proper prenatal care. Education also plays apart; new parents may not know how to care for a child who contracts an ill-ness that could be easily treated.

IMR varies greatly from country to country. A number of countries, espe-cially in Sub-Saharan Africa, have IMR values surpassing 100. For instance,some of the highest values are found in the West African countries of Gambia(130), Guinea (134), Guinea-Bissau (136), and Sierra Leone (136). In EastAfrica several countries have IMRs above 100, including Malawi (137) andMozambique (134).

The lowest IMRs are found in the developed world. Most of the Europeancountries, for instance, have values between 6 and 10. Japan’s IMR is the low-est in the world, at 3.7, and is reflective of its high level of development, theavailability of first-rate health systems, and a highly educated and dedicated


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populace. Japan’s IMRs do not vary regionally to any significant degree. Thesame cannot be said for the United States (IMR 7.0), where notable regionaldisparities are found. Southern states, for instance, have IMRs from 9 to 11,whereas rates in the upper Midwest range from 4 to 6. IMRs are usually lowerin cities and higher in rural areas.

A comparison index to IMR is the child mortality rate, which measures thenumber of deaths per 1,000 children aged one to five. In this age cohort, thehighest rates of death are found in the developing countries.

Suggested Readings: W. Henry Mosely and Peter Cowley, “The Challenge of World Health,”Population Bulletin, vol. 46 (1991); United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Web site,www.unicef.org (includes extensive data on its “Information Statistics” page).

Informal sector. Within the overall economic system in a developing country,a significant number of productive workers are found in what is called the in-formal sector. The income of these workers is not reported to government offi-cials. As such, the government is unable to levy taxes on it, nor is the incomeof these workers reported in the country’s gross national product.

The informal sector is large; perhaps as much as 40 percent of the total laborforce in developing countries works in the informal sector. The workers are pri-marily unskilled women and children. Informal sector jobs include the sellingof food and commodities from mobile carts, operating pedicabs, serving as do-mestic helpers, street trading, and minor maintenance work. There are alsocategories of illegal work in the informal sector, such as prostitution and traf-ficking in illicit drugs.

One function in the informal sector that is advantageous to the governmentis the recycling of waste materials and fashioning of them into useful products.Even though the government does not learn of these workers’ incomes andcannot collect tax on their products, the accumulation of waste materials iseliminated through this enterprise. All sorts of usable products are made fromdiscarded automobile tires, glass bottles, and pieces of wood and metal.

The informal sector in developing countries exists for a number of reasons.First, the retail and service economies in the formal sector are inadequately de-veloped to absorb all of the activities found in the informal sector. Second, de-mand for the products and services of the informal sector dictates that pricesremain low. As such, permanent business sites are not affordable. Finally, inmany cases the quality of the work or products in the informal sector is low.Nonetheless, the informal sector serves a purpose in the economic structure ofthese countries, and its goods and services are an important, although essen-tially immeasurable, part of overall monetary income.

The World Bank has recognized the impact of the informal sector in devel-oping country economies. It provides development assistance to the poorestcountries; the World Bank’s aim is to help developing countries to attain sus-tainable economic growth. For more than 20 years, growth strategies and in-vestment in the economic systems in developing countries has targeted the

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informal sector and noted its importance in providing models of entrepreneur-ship.

Suggested Readings: John Dickenson, Geography of the Third World, 2nd ed., New York: Rout-ledge, 1996; Janet H. Momsen and Vivian Kinnaird, Different Places, Different Voices: Gender and

Development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, New York: Routledge, 1993.

Infrastructure. For economic development to take place, there must be mech-anisms in place to support business operations. The collective set of mecha-nisms is called its infrastructure. Adequate transportation systems in the formof roads, railroads, and airports; communication systems; power supplies; waterand electricity; and needed services (financing, equipment, personnel, etc.) arerepresentative of the components in an economic infrastructure. Each eco-nomic activity should have all of its infrastructural needs in place to facilitateits operation and maximize its profit.

Infrastructural considerations are important in agglomeration economies.Industries will find it attractive to locate near similar industries to take advan-tage of an already established infrastructure. For example, Detroit, Michigan,was for decades the leading automobile manufacturer in the United States.Most of the major automakers were located in and around Detroit, as werehundreds of firms that supplied them with the thousands of parts and compo-nents that became part of an automobile. The prominent German economistAlfred Weber (1868–1958) referred to this form of plant clustering as“economies of association”: each firm that arrives to join the agglomerationadds to the dynamic of the group.

Economists have long recognized infrastructure as one of the major factors ofproduction, along with physical and human resources, associated industrialknowledge, and capital. If the necessary factors are not present, it is unlikelythat the economic activity will be successful. In the case of developing coun-tries following the end of colonialism in general, and especially in Africancountries, infrastructural deficiencies were very pronounced. During the colo-nial era, the occupying European countries developed the colony only to theextent necessary to extract and export the commodities they desired. Therewas no attempt at full regional development.

Consequently, the newly independent countries were faced with buildingthe full infrastructure necessary for economic development. This became anearly impossible task because one of the basic factors of production, capital,was in short supply. The developing countries ran into problems in anotherway: rapid urbanization following independence flooded cities with more peo-ple than could be supported by the urban infrastructure.

Infrastructural problems can haunt even the most developed countries. Inthe 1960s, Japan launched a plan to decentralize and disperse industry from itsdensely populated and crowded manufacturing belt along the Inland Sea fromTokyo west to northern Kyushu. In the plan, several new industrial zones weredesignated; all of them were located outside the major corridor. When the plan

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was implemented, it became clear that most of the designated areas had inade-quate infrastructures to support the planned economic activities. Large capitaloutlays were necessary to improve the infrastructure of these places before therelocation of economic activities could occur.

Suggested Readings: P. W. Daniels and W. F. Lever, eds., The Global Economy in Transition,

Harlow, U.K.: Longman, 1996; Anders Malmberg, “Industrial Geography: Agglomeration andLocal Milieu,” Progress in Human Geography, vol. 20 (1996).

Intensive agriculture. In the agricultural sector, any adjustments to increaseinputs of labor, capital, fertilizers, pesticides, or technology to increase cropyields are representative of intensive agriculture. This widespread practicetakes many forms and is used both in large-scale, technologically advancedagribusiness and in subsistence agricultural practices in developing countries.

Intensive agriculture is associated with the Green Revolution, whichbegan in Asia in the 1950s and used new strains of rice with added fertilizers,pesticides, and high volumes of water to greatly increase crop yields. Intensiveagriculture is also related to the practices of double-cropping and intercrop-ping, both used extensively in Asian agriculture. Intercropping is the plantingof young shoots between the rows of maturing plants. This gives the newplants more growing time, needed because they will reach maturity late in theseason.

Intensive agricultural practices are found throughout South Asia, East Asia,and Southeast Asia. Rice is the primary grain throughout this part of theworld, and it is grown in a labor-intensive manner. Paddy rice is grown inseedbeds and then transplanted by hand into the paddy fields. The plants arespaced as closely as possible to one another in order to gain the highest possi-ble yield per unit area. A mark of the intensive agriculturist is to waste noland. Even small plots of a few square meters and long, narrow strips of landbetween roads and railroad lines come under cultivation.

Countries with large populations and limited land areas suitable for agricul-ture invariably engage in intensive agricultural methods. China and Japanboth fit this description, and their use of agricultural land is markedly inten-sive.

In Western countries, intensive agricultural practices are applied to fruit andvegetable crops and dairy farming. Large truck farms and chicken and egg pro-ducers operate close to major metropolitan areas, providing needed food on adaily basis. Even the feedlot system of livestock raising exemplifies intensiveagricultural practices by concentrating maximum numbers of livestock on alimited land area close to market.

Globally, intensive agriculture has raised the total amount of food producedin virtually every region. However, increased food production in the develop-ing world has been offset by comparable increases in population. Consequently,food production per capita in these regions has not increased and in somecountries has actually gone down.


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A new form of intensive agriculture has developed in cities of the develop-ing world. Empty lots, rooftops, and strips of land along roads are being used togrow food. These tiny urban agricultural plots, individually or collectivelyowned and operated, account for a significant amount of the food produced indeveloping countries.

As population increases in the future, it is anticipated that intensive agricul-tural practices will grow in importance throughout the world.

Suggested Readings: William Bender and Margaret Smith, “Population, Food, and Nutri-tion,” Population Bulletin, vol. 51 (1997); Pierre R. Crosson and Norman J. Rosenberg, “Strate-gies for Agriculture,” Scientific American, vol. 269 (1989).

Intervening opportunity. The concept of intervening opportunity states thatthe number of movements to, for example, Place A, is dependent on the num-ber of opportunities available at Place A. Further, if similar opportunities be-come available closer to a consumer’s origin, there will be fewer trips to PlaceA. For example, if Place A is 10 miles away and a shopper regularly buys pizzasfrom a national franchise there, the shopper will continue to do so unless thatsame franchise, or one similar to it, opens a store closer to the shopper’s home.In this case, the new store is an intervening opportunity, one that will decreasethe shopper’s number of trips to Place A to buy pizzas.

Intervening opportunity is a concept initially used in the study of migra-tion. The same principle applies. Migrants entering California from Mexicomay have the goal of reaching Los Angeles to find employment. However, onentering the United States from Tijuana, for instance, some may find work inthe San Diego area and never complete their intended trip to Los Angeles, be-cause work in San Diego provided an intervening opportunity. Thousands ofyoung Americans move every year from the rural areas in the Midwest inhopes of finding opportunity in the Chicago metropolitan area. It is not un-common for many of them to locate in other urban places, such as St. Paul,Minnesota, or Madison, Wisconsin, if they find opportunities similar to thosein Chicago.

The intervening opportunity concept has been used extensively in studies ofeconomic activity. Shopping patterns, entertainment centers, and industrialactivities have been studied to determine their connections with patrons andother businesses. In the 1950s, geographer Edward L. Ullman published a studyin which he combined intervening opportunity within a three-part explana-tion of movements within an economic system.

Ullman specified that complementarity is necessary before movement cantake place. That is, Place A must have a need for a product from Place B. Or,Places A and B each must have a product that the other needs. In these cases,movement can take place. Next, Ullman introduced intervening opportu-nity. If, for example, Place C is closer to Place A than is Place B, Place C maybecome the supplier of the needed product, providing the intervening oppor-tunity. If this occurs, complementarity is established between Place A and


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Place C. Complementarity still exists between Places A and B, but the degreeof movement between the two is lessened.

Finally, Ullman introduced the idea of transferability. Regardless of the pres-ence of complementarity and intervening opportunity in an economic system,movement will not occur unless there are usable transportation systems avail-able to facilitate that movement (see Accessibility).

There are many variations on this set of concepts. Place A, for instance, maychoose to create its own intervening opportunity by setting up its own productsupplier in Place D, which is closer to Place A than are Places B and C. Ull-man’s three-concept model suggests a close relationship with the notion of ag-glomeration, a dominant theme in economic geography.

Suggested Readings: Keith Chapman and David Walker, Industrial Location, Cambridge,Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1991; John C. Lowe and S. Moryadas, The Geography of Movement,

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975.

Irredentism. Irredentism derives from the Italian word irredentia, meaningunredeemed, and refers to the control of land under a foreign governmentwhen that land is claimed by another country. The claim may be based on cul-tural and historical connections, or it may occur when a superimposed bound-ary splits a culture group and subjects those outside their original country tothe rule of another.

In Italy, the term was originally invoked during the dispute with Austriaover the region of South Tyrol. This dispute between Austria and Italy emergedin 1866 and continued until 1971, when a treaty was signed by the adversaries.The Tyroleans have long sought to secede from Italy, and the Austrians havebeen in support of this move. At the same time, Italy claims South Tyrol. Dur-ing the years of controversy, the Austrians referred to the area as terra irreden-tia, or land unredeemed.

There are other examples where irredentism has occurred. Before WorldWar II, Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany’s leader, claimed that the Sudetenland, aregion in Czechoslovakia with a sizable German population, should be re-turned to Germany. Hitler moved into the Sudetenland with military forces in1938 and successfully annexed this region. Hitler also used the irredentiatheme in 1939 to justify similar military actions in Poland.

More recently, Somalia claimed a region in eastern Ethiopia, the Ogaden, astheir own because a high percentage of the population in that region ofEthiopia is Somali. Warfare between the two countries has broken out in re-cent years over this territorial dispute. Somalia has a long history of territorialdisputes with neighboring countries. The Somali national flag contains fivestars, each one representing land claims in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, and thehoped-for unification of the two major regions by Somalia. All of these claimsare based in irredentism.

Suggested Readings: Michael Heffernan, Twentieth Century Europe: A Political Geography,

New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997; David Laitin and Said Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search

of a State, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987.

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Isarithmic map. The isarithmic map is one of the most frequently used the-matic maps in geography and cartography. Maps of this type are seen daily innewspapers for reporting temperature and barometric pressure. An isarithmicmap contains a number of lines, each of which represents an equal data value.In addition, the lines are assigned values in a uniform sequence. For example, iftemperatures are being recorded on an isarithmic map and the low and highreadings in the reporting area are 20 degrees and 85 degrees, respectively, is-arithmic line values in increments of 10 from 20 to 90 would be suitable.

In the temperature map example, the cartographic process begins by plottingthe individual temperatures reported at each weather station. Once this step iscompleted, the isarithmic lines are placed on the map. A line assigned a valueof 30, for instance, would run through every point of that exact value. The 30-line could continue to be plotted between points that are below or above 30 invalue. Thus, the 30-line would pass between points reporting 28 and 33. Thisprocess would continue until all points in the reporting area were representedin the series of isarithmic lines.

The term isotherm, meaning “equal temperature,” is used to refer to this line.So, any point on the isotherm labeled 30 is assumed to have that value. Wherethe isotherm line goes through a point that has that value, it is obviously re-porting the exact temperature. However, when the line is placed between twovalues, such as 29 and 34, it is assumed that a value of 30 exists somewhere be-tween the two values. In this example, the isotherm line would be placed closerto the station reporting 30, and the assumption is that temperatures between29 and 34 are changing uniformly across the distance between them. This maynot be the case, but with the chosen 10-degree interval, a generalized patternresults. If a closer approximation of the temperature pattern is desired, and ifsufficient data points are available, a 5-degree isotherm interval could be used.This would double the number of isotherms and provide a more detailed mapview of the temperature range.

Isarithmic lines give the map viewer a sense of the shape and configurationof the statistical surface represented. That is, just as a contour map provides aview of the terrain mapped, an isotherm map adds an apparent third dimensionto a two-dimensional map. The area itself is represented by a set of x, y hori-zontal coordinates, and the temperatures add a set of z values, giving an appar-ent vertical dimension to the array of numbers.

Isarithmic maps are used to report a number of topics, each with its ownname. Among them are isochrones, representing lines of equal time; isohyets,reporting lines of equal rainfall; isovel, reporting equal wind velocity, and is-agon, reporting equal magnetic declination.

Suggested Readings: Borden C. Dent, Cartography: Thematic Map Design, Dubuque, Iowa:Wm. C. Brown, 1996; Alan H. MacEachren, How Maps Work, New York: Guilford Press, 1995.

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Kyoto Protocol. In 1979, the World Meteorological Organization and theUnited Nations Environmental Programme convened the first World ClimateConference and established the World Climate Program. This meeting recog-nized climate change to be a serious global problem. A declaration issued at themeeting called on all countries to work toward preventing potentially damag-ing changes in climate caused by humans. Meetings continued frequently overthe next several years to refine the procedure necessary to ensure that human-induced climatic change be reduced.

In 1990, the United Nations completed a draft of its Framework Conventionon Climatic Change (UNFCCC). Two years later, 154 countries signed theUNFCCC at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In this agreement,developed countries committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990levels by the year 2000 and to help developing countries to reduce emissions aswell (see Greenhouse effect).

Two subsequent meetings, in 1995 and 1996, concluded that the initial UN-FCCC commitments were not strong enough and once again affirmed thathuman influence on global climate change was significant. In November 1997,171 countries met in Kyoto, Japan, and agreed to legally binding commitmentson greenhouse gas emissions. The difficulty in the process is that the agreementwould not be enforceable until developed countries, which collectively pro-duce 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, ratify it. The document signed atthis conference was called the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC. Vice PresidentAl Gore signed the document for the United States.

The fact that the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol did not legallyobligate the country to comply with the stipulations in the document. In order

for full compliance to occur, the U.S. Senate must ratify it, an action that theSenate was not given the opportunity to consider.

There were two reasons given by President Bill Clinton’s administration fornot submitting the Kyoto Protocol to the Senate for ratification: (1) theUnited States needed assurance that its overall economy would not suffer ifstipulated emission levels were achieved; and (2) the United States would notagree to lower emissions unless the developing countries were also tasked withreducing emissions.

When George W. Bush became president in 2001, he too chose not to sub-mit the Kyoto Protocol to the Senate for ratification, stating that a differentapproach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions was needed. The Bush plan, an-nounced early in 2001, essentially placed the responsibility for reducing emis-sions in the hands of individual industrial companies. With the Kyoto Protocolabandoned, no subsequent global plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions hasbeen advanced.

Suggested Readings: Jerry Pitzl and Emily Stewart, “The U.S. Position on the Kyoto Protocol—Senate Ratification or Not?” Case 240, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, 2000; “Changing theClimate of Opinion,” The Economist, 12 August 2000.

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Landlocked country. More than 40 of the world’s countries do not have atleast some territory bordering on an ocean. Fourteen of these countries are onthe African continent, a legacy of the era of colonialism. During the period ofEuropean domination in Africa, which began in the late 1800s, the primarymotive of the occupiers was to extract and export minerals and commoditiesfrom the interior of Africa to the coasts for shipment to Europe. Roads and rail-road lines were installed to facilitate the movement of goods to the coastalcities. When the era of colonialism ended, the newly independent countrieswere left with the economic infrastructure installed by the Europeans. Noneof the previous colonies realized full regional development, and the lands inthe interior of the continent received the least attention. As such, these coun-tries are the poorest in Africa, and their prospects for future development arehampered by not having easy access to the sea.

Landlocked countries are at a commercial and strategic disadvantage. Theymust rely on agreements with neighboring countries to have access to port fa-cilities, an important factor in international trade. In many cases, unfriendlyneighbors have blocked this access. Landlocked countries are also at a disad-vantage because they do not have access to the riches of the continental shelfin the offshore zone, which coastal countries claim for economic purposes (seeExclusive economic zone).

Without access to the sea, landlocked countries have demanded a share ofthe wealth found in the ocean’s depths and exploited by seacoast countries. Ofparticular interest was the acquisition of manganese nodules, concentratedclusters of valuable metals mined from the ocean floor by developed countries(see United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

Bolivia is the only landlocked country in Latin America. At one time, Boliviahad access to the Pacific Ocean, but it lost that land bridge in a war with Chile.

In many cases, landlocked states have acted as buffer states between poten-tial adversaries. During the cold war, several landlocked eastern Europeancountries came under control of the Soviet Union and served collectively as abuffer zone adjacent to western Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Orga-nization nations.

The degree of isolation experienced by landlocked states varies. The CzechRepublic and Slovakia, two landlocked countries in eastern Europe, haveachieved high levels of accessibility by road and railroad lines through adja-cent countries.

The former Soviet Union was not a completely landlocked country, but itsaccess points to the oceans were limited and distant from its major regions ofpopulation and economic activity. The Soviet Union, and the Russian Em-pire before it, long wanted a warm-water port. When the Soviets invadedAfghanistan in 1979, many experts thought this incursion would lead to fur-ther movement into Pakistan and eventually to the establishment of a porton the Indian Ocean. This did not occur, but the sequence of events pointsout how compelling it is for a country to have access to the sea.

Suggested Readings: John O’Loughlin, Dictionary of Geopolitics, Westport, Conn.: Green-wood Press, 1994; Clive H. Scholfield, Global Boundaries, vol. 1, World Boundaries Series, Lon-don: Routledge, 1994.

Language family. Such individual languages as Mandarin, French, Arabic, andSwahili each belong to a language family that has common roots in an earliersingle tongue. Language families vary in size, from Indo-European, spoken byabout half the world’s population, to such languages as Aborigine and Papuan,with speakers only in the thousands.

The Indo-European language family is believed to have begun in prehistoriceastern Europe and western Ukraine. The speakers of the original root lan-guage were hunter-gatherers who later developed animal husbandry and earlyforms of agriculture. About 2500 B.C., the culture group migrated to a numberof locations in Europe and to the Indian subcontinent. Over time, variations inthe original root language began to occur, and individual languages in the fam-ily developed.

Three of the Indo-European languages—English, Portuguese, and Spanish—were transplanted to the Western Hemisphere during the era of colonialism,from about 1500 to 1800, where they are found over an extensive area. The in-dividual languages in a language family are determined by finding words thatare similar in composition and have the same meaning. For example, the En-glish word mother is madre in Spanish, matka in Polish, and meter in Greek, allclosely related versions of the term in languages within the Indo-Europeanfamily.

Other prominent language families include Sino-Tibetan, Niger-Congo,Dravidian, Afro-Asiatic, Austronesian, and Austro-Asiatic. Two Asian lan-

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guage families have only one language each: Japanese and Korean. These twolanguages developed independent of the Sino-Tibetan language family foundprimarily in neighboring China. Japan and Korea are two examples of countriesthat can truly be classified as nation-states due to their uniformity of cultureand a language unique to each.

Suggested Readings: Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov, The Indo-European Language

and the Indo-Europeans, 2 vols., The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton, 1990; Christopher Mosleyand R. E. Asher, Atlas of the World’s Languages, New York: Routledge, 1994.


Lingua franca. The term lingua franca originated in the Middle Ages and refersto the language used by Arab traders to communicate with the Franks, theirEuropean trading partners living along the north coast of the MediterraneanSea. The term is still used to identify a number of languages that have gainedprominence globally and regionally to facilitate communications among dis-similar culture groups.

Language differences can deter the free flow of ideas, the exchange of goods,and the diffusion of innovations. To eliminate this barrier to communication,some languages have been used beyond the regions in which they are the na-tive tongue. An example of a regional lingua franca is Swahili, which is usedextensively in several countries in East Africa.

English has become the most common lingua franca. Many countries haveincluded English instruction in their education systems. In Russia, there is agreat demand for teachers of English in the schools and in the business sector,where the shift to capitalism called for more-direct communication with busi-ness counterparts in Europe and the United States. In the former SovietUnion, Russian was the lingua franca in the 15 republics.

A number of lingua francas can be found in other regions. Among them areHindustan in South Asia, Urdu in Pakistan, and Mandarin in China. Morethan one billion people, the largest number of speakers of any single language,speak Mandarin. At an earlier time in history, Latin was the lingua francathroughout the Mediterranean area.

A lingua franca has developed along the border of the United States andMexico. The language is a mixture of Spanish and English called Spanglish,and it includes word combinations from both cultures. A great deal of eco-nomic activity is taking place along this border, and Spanglish is enhancing in-teraction between the two countries.

Suggested Readings: Kenneth Katzner, The Languages of the World, New York: Funk & Wag-nalls, 1986; Web site for the Summer Institute of Linguistics, www.sil.org (includes the LanguageFamily Index).

Loess. Loess refers to a fine silty material that is wind blown and eventually de-posited in thick beds. The material is yellow or buff in color and is very fertile.Some of the world’s most productive agricultural regions contain significant

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amounts of loess. There are extensive loess deposits in the United States, Cen-tral Europe, Central Asia, Argentina, and China.

Winds pick up fine particulate material and transport it to areas of deposi-tion. During the deglaciation period, which began 11,000 years ago, ice grind-ing on rock produced a fine powdery material that was picked up by wind andtransplanted to distant locations in what are now the Great Plains of theAmerican Midwest. In this manner, large areas of the Midwest accumulatedloess plains. The Loess Plateau in northern China was formed as winds fromMongolia picked up loess soils from the Ordos Desert. This deposit of loess is byfar the largest single accumulation in the world. Stretching across thousands ofsquare miles, the loess layers average 20 to 30 meters in depth. In some valleys,loess thickness exceeds 200 meters.

Loess soil compacts very tightly because of the small particle size. In China’sLoess Plateau, the Chinese carved extensive cave-like dwellings out of thethick loess layers. These caves served as homes for agriculturists who workedthe fertile loess soil. Unfortunately, loess soil is highly prone to erosion, and inone giant flood early in the twentieth century, thousands of Chinese lost theirlives as raging waters destroyed the loess dwellings they occupied.

Every year about 1.5 billion tons of soil erodes from the Loess Plateau. Theloess is carried away by the major river of northern China, the Hwang He (Yel-low River). The Hwang He appears yellow during flood seasons because of thecolor imparted by the suspended loess particles. About six centimeters of loesssoil accumulate every year at the bottom of the Hwang He as it crosses thelevel North China Plain. Over time, this accumulation has raised the river bot-tom to a height of 10 meters above the surrounding floodplain. Great leveeshave been in place for years to contain the elevated river. At times the leveesbreak and a concerted effort is required of all people in the area to fill the gapand contain the river within its channel. The Hwang He has been calledChina’s Sorrow because of this difficult situation.

Suggested Readings: Ian Livingston and Andrew Warren, Aeolian Geomorphology: An Intro-

duction, Harlow, U.K.: Addison Wesley Longman, 1996; Songgiao Zhao, Geography of China: En-

vironment, Resources, Population, and Development, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.

Long lot system. The settlement pattern marked by long, narrow agriculturallots facing a river or road is found in a number of locations in the UnitedStates, western Europe, Argentina, Brazil, and in Quebec, Canada. In NorthAmerica, the system dates to colonial times, when rivers were the main corri-dors of transportation. Lots with 130–180-meter fronts on the St. LawrenceRiver extended as rectangles for several kilometers inland. Each farm had ac-cess to river water and transportation.

As population increased in French Canada and available fronts on the riverwere all claimed, a road was built at the inland terminus of the long lots. An-other series of long lots was then extended farther inland to accommodate theexpanding agricultural sector. The roads provided access either directly to mar-

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ket centers or to points on the river, where long-distance transportation was available.

The long lot system is still in use in FrenchCanada, although it has experienced some adjust-ments over the years. Some of the lots, already nar-row from the original plan, were further narrowedas heirs to the land divided them along theirlength. In some cases, the long lots were divided toan extent that limited their usefulness for agricul-ture.

When the British sent the Acadians of theCanadian Maritime Provinces out of the country inthe early nineteenth century, they settled in south-ern Louisiana. There they established the long lotsystem of agricultural settlement.

The long lot system is also found in several areasin Texas, especially along the Rio Grande and theRed River. Long lots are located along southward-flowing rivers at the borders of Colorado and NewMexico and in limited areas in Illinois, Indiana,and Wisconsin.

Suggested Readings: David B. Grigg, An Introduction to

Agricultural Geography, New York: Routledge, 1995; Tom L.McKnight, Regional Geography of the United States and Canada,

Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1992.

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Long lot system. Source: Canada before Confedera-

tion: A Study in Historical Geography, by R. ColeHarris and John Warkentin. Copyright 1974 byOxford University Press, Inc. Used by permissionof Oxford University Press.

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Mackinder, Halford J. (1861–1947). TheBritish geographer Halford J. Mackinder wasone of geography’s most important advocatesin the late nineteenth century. During thistime, geographers were formulating the focusof the discipline so it might be includedin the new university systems. Mackinder,along with German geographer FriedrichRatzel, American geographer William Mor-ris Davis, and others, was convinced that ge-ography should be the science that studiesthe interface between nature and culture, anearly reference to the important contempo-rary theme of human–environment interac-tion.

If it seems strange that geography would seekto identify itself intellectually at that late date,it is pertinent to note that the great era of ex-ploration was ending; most land and sea areason the earth’s surface had been discovered, ex-plored, inventoried, and charted. For many inthe discipline, the golden age of geography wasclosing and a new direction, one that wouldhave a sound intellectual basis suitable for uni-versity acceptance, was required.

Halford J. Mackinder. Source: Library of Congress.

Mackinder became a reader in geography at Oxford University in 1887, atime when the discipline was firmly establishing itself in higher education. Herecommended the establishment of a geographic center at Oxford in 1895; thecenter came into existence four years later. Mackinder realized the importanceof history and geography working together, a theme that is today followed inhistorical geography and in process studies. His recommended approach in thisregard was to re-create past geographies, noting how the sequence of changesover time produced current settings.

Mackinder is also prominent in geopolitics for his heartland theory. Thistheory contends that the great Eurasian heartland, the most inaccessible regionin the world, is essentially invulnerable from attack by sea powers. The coast-lands, however, are vulnerable to attack from both the heartland and attacksfrom the sea. In his 1919 book, Democratic Ideas and Reality, Mackinder suc-cinctly stated his heartland theory (p. 113):

Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland.Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island;Who rules the World Island commands the world.

The World Island, in Mackinder’s theory, is the combined landmasses of Eur-asia and Africa. In the age of sea-power dominance, Mackinder’s notions hadmerit. Everything changed in time, however, with the advent of long-distanceaircraft and then the intercontinental ballistic missile. In the modern era,every point on the earth’s surface is potentially vulnerable to large-scale at-tack within minutes. However, one aspect of Mackinder’s theory may stillhold true if the focus is on actual ground invasion and occupation. The ex-pansive Eurasian landmass in this context remains essentially invulnerable.Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler discovered this in World War II, when hesent German troops into the Soviet Union. French emperor Napoleon Bona-parte learned the same lesson years earlier in his attempt to invade and con-quer Russia.

Suggested Readings: Paul Cloke et al., Approaching Human Geography: An Introduction to

Contemporary Theoretical Debates, London: Guilford Press, 1991; Geoffrey J. Martin and PrestonE. James, All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley &Sons, 1992.

Malthus, Thomas Robert (1760–1834). Thomas Robert Malthus was an En-glish economist who is renowned for his essay signaling concern about dispari-ties between population increase and food production. His “Essay on thePrinciple of Populations As It Affects the Further Improvement of Society,”published in 1798, was widely read and commented on, both positively andnegatively, for years. Malthus contended that human population was increas-ing geometrically, whereas food supplies necessary to support the growing num-bers of people were expanding arithmetically.

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Malthus had no way of knowing of the significant number of advances inagricultural technology that were to occur in subsequent years and the newagricultural regions that would be opened. Nor could he have known the de-gree of population increase that would occur through both the nineteenth andtwentieth centuries. Had he known that world population would surpass sixbillion by 2000, his predictions would have been even more dire.

According to Malthus, there were positive checks on population growththat could be invoked. These included celibacy and postponing marriage sothat childbearing would be delayed. Negative checks on population growthwere not so pleasant, Malthus warned: war, poverty, pestilence, and faminewould result if steps were not taken to curb population growth.

Charles Darwin, the eminent nineteenth-century English naturalist, waskeenly aware of Malthus’s work. He used some of his findings in developing hisfamous 1859 book on evolution, The Origin of Species.

In the late nineteenth century, concern about population outstripping foodproduction was lessened as new agricultural lands were opened to full produc-tion in eastern Europe and the Crimea. Another immense increase in food pro-duction was realized when the Midwest agricultural region and the GreatPlains wheat belt in the United States and Canada were in full production.This unequaled agricultural heartland came to be known as the breadbasket tothe world. Yet, world population continued to grow at high rates, and by the1950s, Malthusian concerns were again being raised.

A major response to the need for more food was the Green Revolution, be-ginning in the 1950s, an effort to develop higher-yielding strains of rice andwheat. The Green Revolution was particularly successful in India, althoughthe process calling for high inputs of fertilizer, pesticides, and water was quiteexpensive. Because of the high cost of implementation, many regions, espe-cially in Sub-Saharan Africa, could not afford to grow the new grains. Despitesignificant increases in food output in recent decades, starvation is still experi-enced in some regions of the world. Particularly hard hit have been such coun-tries as Somalia and the Sudan, where shortages result from both an inability toproduce enough food locally and difficulties in making food available from out-side sources. Problems related to distribution are found even within individualcountries. In India, for instance, local political situations work against the easytransfer of grains from one part of the country to another.

Recent efforts to invoke strict family planning in fast-growing countriesand the fostering of sustainable development programs are identified asbeing neo-Malthusian in concept. These efforts are in place to avert the con-tinuing population explosion that characterizes major regions in the devel-oping world.

The basic premise offered by Malthus more than 200 years ago appears to beeminently valid today. The race between population growth and food produc-tion, it seems, will continue well into the future.

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Suggested Readings: J. Dupaquier and A. Fauve-Chamoux, Malthus Past and Present, NewYork: Academic Press, 1983; Robert W. McColl and Youguan Kou, “Feeding China’s Millions,”Geographical Review, vol. 80 (1990).

Maquiladoras. The region along the United States–Mexico border has grownsteadily in recent decades. The economic engine driving this growth is the2,500 factories, or maquiladoras, first established in 1965 and greatly expandedsince the 1980s. The term maquiladora derives from the Spanish word maquilar,which means to receive a payment for the milling of corn. The maquiladoraprogram was established by the Mexican government in hopes of employingdisplaced agricultural workers when the earlier bracero program, in which mil-lions of Mexican farm laborers worked in U.S. fields, terminated.

Originally called the Border Industrialization Program, the maquiladora planprovided subsidized land and tax breaks to U.S. firms if they would locateacross the border in Mexico and employ Mexican workers. In addition, all thegoods produced in the maquiladoras would be shipped tariff free back to theUnited States. The only cost to the United States was a charge for the valueadded during Mexican production.

The major benefit of this system to Mexico is employment for people in rel-atively high-paying jobs. As many as 500,000 workers are employed inmaquiladora plants. For the United States, the benefits include low labor costs(see Outsourcing) and the absence of import duties on finished goods.

There are some problems associated with this booming enterprise, however.In Mexico, floods of migrants have come to a region that does not have an ad-equate social infrastructure to sustain them. Housing shortages and poorsewage and sanitation systems plague many of the overcrowded settlements inthe Mexican border towns. Serious outbreaks of such diseases as hepatitis andtyphoid have frequently occurred. There has also been significant pollution ofthe Rio Grande from the casual disposal of industrial waste products. Bothcountries have agreed to continue intensive cleanup efforts to protect thisvaluable river. The United States has been criticized for allowing industries toset up operations in Mexico and deprive its own citizens of employment oppor-tunities. In this regard, the maquiladora operation represents another exampleof the globalization of economic activity.

One of the provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) stipulates that the Mexican government gradually phase out themaquiladora program. Further, under NAFTA, products made in themaquiladora plants may also be marketed in Mexico.

Suggested Readings: J. M. Szekely, Manufacturing across Borders and Oceans: Japan, the United

States, and Mexico, San Diego: Center for U.S.–Mexican Studies, University of California, 1991;Melissa W. Wright, “Crossing the Factory Frontier: Gender, Place and Power in the MexicanMaquiladora,” Autipode, vol. 29 (1997).

Market gardening. The intensive agriculture practice of market gardening in-volves the production of vegetables and fruits primarily for sale in metropolitan

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areas. The term market garden comes from nineteenth-century England, andthe concept has been used synonymously with truck gardening, the Americanversion.

The production of perishable food products near the market is a key factor invon Thunen’s land use model, developed in the early 1800s by German econ-omist Johann Heinrich von Thunen. In von Thunen’s time and now, locationclose to consumers is essential, given the perishable nature of the product. Let-tuce, tomatoes, and asparagus, for example, must be shipped and marketed inthe shortest possible time in order to maintain freshness.

A general rule in truck farming holds that the distances to market not ex-ceed 24–36 hours. This rule has changed significantly in recent years with therefrigerated truck and railroad car. Now it is possible for agricultural fields inFlorida and Texas to supply the eastern seaboard with fruits and vegetables inthe winter when local operations are shut down for the season.

Market gardening has become specialized. For example, the DelmarvaPeninsula, a productive agricultural region composed of parts of Delaware,Maryland, and Virginia, has farms that specialize only in potatoes. Farms inother regions specialize in citrus products and tree fruits. Specialization ofproduct type in market gardens in another example of agribusiness. Vastfields of lettuce and tomatoes near Yuma, Arizona, for instance, provide theseitems to urban centers from Phoenix to Los Angeles to St. Louis. Dependingon the crop grown, market gardens may require the hiring of migratory work-ers, most of whom travel from Mexico for employment in the fields duringharvest season.

Market farms are found in Europe, where they provide such items as olives,fruits, and wine in addition to the standard vegetable products. Proximity tourban centers is the rule. In the United States, these operations are found ina number of regional concentrations stretching from southern California tothe eastern seaboard. In California, an abundance of market gardens is lo-cated in the rich Central Valley and on the Pacific coastlands south of SanFrancisco. Others cluster in and near the Los Angeles Basin, serving thatlarge metropolitan area. Another area of concentration is found along theGulf of Mexico, from Texas through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and theFlorida Panhandle. The market gardens in the South and the Southeast aregrowing rapidly in response to increasing demands for food locally and in thenorthern states.

By far the largest concentration of market gardens is found along the easternseaboard, from Virginia to Long Island, New York. This is an ideal location be-cause of its proximity to the millions of people in Megalopolis (the great citiesof the Northeast), its productive alluvial soils, a relatively mild climate that al-lows farming for eight to nine months a year, and good transportation facilities.There are also extensive market garden activities along the southern shores ofLake Erie and Lake Ontario, which serve urban centers in the old North Amer-ican Manufacturing Belt.

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As urban centers continue to grow and population increases in the UnitedStates, market garden operations will expand to keep up with higher demandsfor their food products.

Suggested Readings: John Tarrant, “Farming and Food,” in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of

World Geography, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991; Iowa State University agriculturalWeb site, www.ag.iastate.edu.

Median-line principle. One of the provisions of the United Nations Conven-tion on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was the creation of an exclusive eco-nomic zone (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles from shore. Within this zone,countries have exclusive rights to explore, exploit, and manage all resources inboth the seabed and the waters above. The EEZ may be extended up to 350nautical miles if the continental shelf extends that far. Problems occur, how-ever, when countries lie closer to each other and neither has the full 200-nautical-mile EEZ. In cases of this type, the median-line principle is invoked.For example, Australia and Indonesia are about 300 nautical miles from eachother across the Timor Sea. A line 150 nautical miles from each, the medianline, defines the limit of each EEZ. Cases like this one are fairly easily resolved.

For many countries with seacoast locations distant from other countries, theEEZ provision is positive for economic development. A continental shelf maycontain mineral resources suitable for exploitation, including oil and gas re-serves, and the waters above the relatively shallow continental shelf provideexcellent fishing grounds.

Some regions of the world have extremely complex EEZ situations broughton by close proximity of countries one to another and claims to ownership ofadjacent seas or parts of them. Perhaps the most complex region, and clearlythe most contentious one in this sense, is the South China Sea, claimed in partor whole by eight countries. The areal extent of their claims in many casesoverlap one another. To further complicate the matter, China, Taiwan, andVietnam claim all of the South China Sea as their own, citing, for instance,2,000-year-old historical evidence of ownership.

This multinational dispute only increases in intensity as time goes by, mainlybecause areas within the South China Sea contain reserves of oil and naturalgas, two valuable fuels. Further, important sea lines of commerce for MiddleEast oil enter the South China Sea through the Strait of Malacca and proceedto Japan, a major fuel user. Any serious delays in the shipment of commoditiesthrough the South China Sea would be disruptive to the world economy.

There have been conflicts in the past. For example, China took the ParacelIslands by force in 1974 from South Vietnam. In 1995, China occupied Mis-chief Reef, a small atoll in the Spratly Island group, a place also claimed by thePhilippines. Although the furor surrounding this incident seems to havecooled, there is high potential for further unrest in this key region.

Suggested Readings: Gerald H. Blake, Maritime Boundaries, vol. 5, World Boundaries Series,London: Routledge, 1994; Jerry Pitzl, “Mischief on Mischief Reef: Chinese Adventures in theSpratly Islands,” Case 246, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, 2001.


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Megalopolis. The word megalopolis comesfrom the Greek mega, large or great, and polis,city. The eminent French geographer JeanGottmann made specific reference to thehighly urbanized U.S. coastal corridor fromBoston, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C.,as Megalopolis. He had studied the easternseaboard through the 1930s and 1940s and inthe 1950s was named director of the Twenti-eth Century Fund’s research project titled “AStudy of Megalopolis.”

Gottmann’s initial study of Megalopolis in1950 was based in large part on a census docu-ment titled State Economic Areas. This workused a statistical base for identifying countiesas either metropolitan or nonmetropolitan.The map produced in the study clearly indi-cated an almost unbroken series of metropoli-tan counties stretching from the suburbs ofBoson south to Washington, D.C., and its sub-urbs. It was clear from this map that a newurban form was emerging, one in which citieswithin Megalopolis had continued to expand their boundaries until theyreached the boundaries of those to the north and south. What was emergingwas a single developed urban area stretching more than 400 miles along theeastern seaboard.

In his follow-up study in 1960, Gottmann found that Megalopolis had ex-panded even further. Several counties that were designated nonmetropolitanin 1950 had become metropolitan. It seemed clear as well to Gottmann thatthe northern and southern limits of Megalopolis would begin to reach farther.He suggested that Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia, would become part ofMegalopolis in a short time. In 1960, Gottmann published his classic work,Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States, a detailedanalysis of this growing concentration of people and socioeconomic activities.

Many of the major cities in Megalopolis were originally situated on the fallline, the point at which waterfalls presented a break in upstream travel, andalong other rivers emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Among them are NewYork City, on the Hudson River; Washington, D.C., on the Potomac; Hartfordon the Connecticut; and Richmond on the James River. By 2000 it was clearthat the boundaries of Megalopolis had reached north to Portland, Maine, andsouth to Virginia Beach, Virginia. Nonetheless, the region still retains its nick-name, “Boswash” (Boston to Washington). The population of Megalopolis hadincreased to more than 50 million by the twentieth century’s end and growthwill certainly continue in the future.

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Jean Gottmann. Source: Library of Congress.

There are two other large urban integrations in North America. Onestretches along the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City through Montreal,Canada, and Chicago, Illinois, and includes a string of prominent cities on thesouth shore of the Great Lakes. The U.S. segment runs from Chicago to Pitts-burgh, Pennsylvania, and has been nicknamed “Chipitts.” Another can befound in a nearly unbroken sequence of built-up areas from San Francisco toSan Diego. “Sansan” is its familiar name. Megalopolitan complexes are build-ing as well in Latin America, Europe, and Asia as urbanization trends continueworldwide.

Suggested Readings: Jean Gottmann, Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the

United States, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1961; Jean Gottmann, Megalopolis Revisited: 25 Years Later,

College Park: University of Maryland, Institute for Urban Studies, 1987; Jean Gottmann andR. A. Harper, Since Megalopolis, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.

Melting pot. The notion of the melting pot, the merging of many ethnic char-acteristics to create a new identity, is particularly American in origin. It wasborn in the century of migration (1815–1915), during which millions of peoplefrom dozens of primarily European countries came to the United States andCanada to make a new life.

The melting pot idea is idealistic and reflects a somewhat naive althoughnoble belief that after a period of time in the United States, individuals wouldleave their old cultural characteristics behind and become members of a uniqueAmerican culture. The belief was that a transformation of this magnitudewould occur through the full processes of acculturation, in which members ofanother culture group change in order to make their way in a new place, andassimilation, the shedding of all the old cultural attributes and the completemerging within the new society.

Is there an identifiable American culture? Particular attributes, such as lan-guage, dress, food preferences, and religion, show that Americans are excep-tionally diverse. Even the common language, English, has strong regionaldifferences and its use is far from uniform.

Pockets of strong ethnic identity mark the country: for example, Italian andGreek clusters in Chicago, Hispanic concentrations in the Southwest and in anumber of major cities throughout the country, and Irish neighborhoods inBoston. In recent years, more migrants have arrived from Asian countries.Hmong, Vietnamese, and Chinese, to mention only a few ethnic groups, haveestablished communities at a number of locations in the United States. Unlikethe European groups before them, they have maintained virtually all aspects oftheir native culture and have not completely mixed with the local populace.

The retention of original cultural attributes and the clustering of like ethnicgroups serves at least two important purposes: (1) there is strength in numbers,and it is always more comfortable to be with members of your own ethnic back-ground; and (2) the established community in a new country provides a desti-nation for recent arrivals from the country of origin.

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Adoption of English has been suggested as the first step toward moving themelting process along. Clearly, a working knowledge of English is important inthe United States. It is the language of commerce and business, and it is essen-tial for daily living. Yet, many new arrivals learn English in order to make es-sential contacts for training and employment but use their native language athome. In public schools that host large numbers of new immigrant children,teachers and teachers’ aides may be required to conduct classes in more thanone language, or at least make the lessons understandable to non-English-speaking students. This is a practice that runs counter to the melting-pot idea.

Worldwide there is evidence of a resurgence of cultural identity and astrong insistence on retaining original ethnic identity. It would appear thatthe melting-pot notion has yet to take root in most regions. In fact, the mostrecent focus addresses the recognizable diversity within groups.

Suggested Readings: James P. Allen and Eugene Turner, We the People: An Atlas of America’s

Ethnic Diversity, New York: Macmillan, 1988; Allan G. Noble, To Build in a New Land: Ethnic

Landscapes in North America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

Mental map. A mental map is a spatial image of a place that is carried in themind. The place may be as small as a backyard or even a room. It may be aslarge as the entire world or, if one is interested in astronomy and the locationsof the stars and planets, as large as the sky. The mental map represents an indi-vidual’s personal perspective of a place. As such, the details recorded in themind reflect those best known and favored.

It may be useful to think of a place with which one is familiar to get a senseof the notion of mental maps. For instance, a favorite shopping mall or one’sown neighborhood. Particular features that stand out in this spatial imagemight include shops or neighborhood features that one is drawn to for particu-lar reasons or that are favored over other features. In this sense, the mental mapreflects individual knowledge of particular places and is also an indicator of at-titudes toward aspects of a place.

Drawing a mental map of a place can also give an indication of how well aperson knows the spatial arrangement of elements in that place. When taskedwith drawing a map of the states in the United States from memory, people arelikely to more accurately portray that part of the country in which they live.When an exercise of this type is expanded to the global scale, people may besupremely challenged. Just getting the continents and oceans correctlyarranged would be difficult unless one had studied this topic.

Mental maps are useful in organizing information about places, rememberingspatial features of areas visited, and as a reference for finding a place or givingsomeone else directions.

The use of mental maps was formalized in the early 1970s by British geogra-phers Peter Gould and Rodney White in studies of the residential preferencesof groups of people in particular locations. Interesting patterns emerged as thedata was collected and mapped. For example, one study asked people in Penn-

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sylvania to state the location in the United States where they would most liketo live. The resulting map showed a high preference for the home state andthose surrounding it and a very low preference for states in the South. Whenpeople in the South were asked the same question, the resulting map showedpreference for their home region and low value for the northern tier of states.Residential preference studies represent a good example of research in the areaof environmental perception and are reflective of one’s knowledge of, and atti-tudes toward, places.

Suggested Readings: Peter Gould and Rodney White, Mental Maps, 2nd ed., Boston: Allen &Unwin, 1986; R. J. Johnston et al., The Dictionary of Human Geography, 2nd ed., Oxford, U.K.:Basil Blackwell, 1986.

Mercantilism. From the fourteenth century through the end of the eighteenthcentury, Europe was the center of monumental changes in economic systemsand international expansion. Following the end of the feudal era, countries inEurope began extensive trading with one another. Profit and the accumulationof wealth were primary motives for this activity. During this period, the secondAgricultural Revolution was well underway, and from 1650 to 1750 the Com-mercial Revolution, reflective of the advent of new and more powerful ocean-going ships, was opening markets throughout the known world. Spain andPortugal had established colonies in Latin America, and the British, Dutch,and French were developing business activities in Africa, Asia, and NorthAmerica.

The guiding economic philosophy of this era was mercantilism, the insis-tence that state government use its power to manage the economy and increasenational wealth by regulating foreign trade. This was accomplished by stressingthe flow of exports over imports, the production and sale of manufacturedgoods as opposed to agricultural products or commodities, and the acquisitionof precious metals. The Spanish were particularly successful in accessing largevolumes of gold and silver in Latin America and shipping these riches home. Itwas an important aspect of mercantilism to stress foreign trade over domestictrade. The whole idea of mercantilism was the accumulation of wealth, and theprimary measure of success in this regard was gaining relative advantage overother European countries.

This was an era of intense international rivalry as countries maneuvered togain military and industrial supremacy. A number of key mercantile citiesemerged as centers of commercial activity and the points of accumulation ofgreat wealth. Amsterdam, London, Lisbon, and Madrid are all representative ofthese major centers of influence.

Mercantilism is one of a number of phases in the development of the inter-national economic system. The next phase to follow mercantilism was the In-dustrial Revolution of the late eighteenth century, a time of unprecedentedchange in manufacturing, city growth, and international economic outreach.The conceptual base of mercantilism, the accumulation of wealth and intense

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country rivalry in the economic realm, helped to justify and further the acqui-sition of colonies in Africa and Asia. The era of colonialism ensured the supplyof agricultural products not available in Europe and minerals needed in theburgeoning industrial processes.

Suggested Readings: P. T. Ellsworth and J. Clark Leith, The International Economy, New York:Macmillan, 1984; Paul R. Krugman, Rethinking International Trade, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,1990.

Metes and bounds system. The land survey system that uses visible landscapereference points to delineate a land holding is referred to as the metes andbounds system. This system invariably produces an irregularly shaped landholding, one that may be very difficult to resurvey if some of the features usedin mapping have shifted or disappeared.

An example of a metes and bounds legal description would appear some-thing like this:

At the fork in HemlockCreek, from thatSouthwesterly one-eighth mile to theLone oak tree, from thatEast one-sixteenth mile to the footbridgeOver Hemlock Creek, fromThat northerly along theWest bank of HemlockCreek to the first point.

It is easy to see that a legal description based on these points could be trouble-some years later. To begin with, the creek may shift its location or dry up. Theloan oak tree may die and be removed. The footbridge over Hemlock Creekcould be removed as well; or it could be relocated along the creek. Any of thesechanges could lead to difficult interpretations should it be necessary at somepoint to prove ownership of the land, or at the time of sale. Legal litigation isnot uncommon in situations involving lands surveyed under the metes andbounds system.

Areas of the United States surveyed under the metes and bounds system in-clude a large segment of the eastern seaboard, stretching from Maine to coastalGeorgia and extending inland to Kentucky and Tennessee. Another section isfound along the lower Mississippi River, in Louisiana and Mississippi. A smallportion of western Alabama near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico also has landsurveyed by the metes and bounds system. The same is true in a large area ofeast Texas. Finally, sections of coastal California from San Francisco to the LosAngeles Basin include metes and bounds areas.

The metes and bounds system is reflected to a great extent in the shapes ofcounties within these areas. The same irregularity is apparent in county shapes.

A land ordinance of 1785 dictated a radically different land survey systemfor the remainder of the United States. The township and range survey was


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based on a rectangular grid. The new survey was first used in Ohio, at the east-ern end of the Northwest Territory. All land north of the Ohio River and westof Pennsylvania was destined to be surveyed in the new manner.

Suggested Readings: John Fraser Hart, The Rural Landscape, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni-versity Press, 1998; Edward T. Price, Dividing the Land: Early American Beginnings of Our Private

Property Mosaic, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Metropolitan statistical area. A metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a met-ropolitan area (MA) that includes at least one city with 50,000 or more inhab-itants, or an urbanized area with a total population of 100,000 or more. Beforethe era of suburbanization, data collected for individual towns and cities trulyrepresented those places. But when settlement began spreading beyond the de-fined limits of municipalities, more people and activities began to occupy thenew suburban settings, and data exclusive to the central city was no longer ad-equate to describe the emerging metropolitan area.

The term metropolitan area became an official designation of the U.S. Officeof Management and Budget in 1990. Its conceptual base, however, reachesback to the mid-twentieth century. Generally, an MA consists of a core urbanarea with large population numbers and adjacent communities that have ahigh degree of economic and social integration with the core. Over time, thestandards for identifying MAs have changed, but the general definition hasheld relatively constant.

In 1949, in response to the first formidable waves of suburbanization follow-ing the end of World War II, the standard metropolitan area (SMA) was desig-nated. Data began to be collected at this time for the entire MA in addition toindividual towns and cities. In 1959, a name change was made to standard met-ropolitan statistical area (SMSA), and in 1983, the designator became metro-politan statistical area.

For the New England region, the minimum population is 75,000. Anotherstipulation specifies the county that contains the largest city as the centralcounty. Adjacent counties that have at least 50 percent of their population inthe urbanized area of the largest city are part of the MSA if they are closely as-sociated with the central county in terms of commuting to the central countyand are urban in character. In New England, the MSAs are based in cities andtowns.

If an MSA has a population of one million or more, it may be designated aconsolidated MSA (CMSA) if the separate components meet the basic stan-dard for an MSA and local opinion supports inclusion of the area. If these cri-teria are met, the component is designated a primary metropolitan statisticalarea (PMSA) within the CMSA.

Following are some examples of various MSAs as listed in the census. Popu-lation numbers are based on estimates as of July 1, 1992.

Orlando, FL MSA 1,305,000Lake County 161,000


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Orange County 715,000Osceola County 119,000Seminole County 310,000

Orlando is designated an MSA because the counties comprising the area meetthe basic standards for designation as a PMSA. Note that the total populationof the four counties equals that of the MSA.

In the next example, a CMSA is composed of several PMSAs.

Philadelphia–Wilmington–Atlantic City,PA–NJ–DE–MD CMSA 5,939,000

Atlantic–Cape May, NJ PMSA 326,000Philadelphia, PA–NJ PMSA 4,944,000Vineland–Millville–Bridgeton, NJ PMSA 138,000Wilmington–Newark DE–MD PMSA 580,000

This CMSA includes PMSAs that have counties in four states. There are fourPMSAs within the CMSA. Note that the Philadelphia–Wilmington–AtlanticCity CMSA gets its name because these three PMSAs have the largest popula-tions of all the components. Finally, each of the PMSAs in this example iscomposed of a number of counties, with Philadelphia having nine counties inits PMSA.

The MSA system of reporting data on populations and functions reflects thedynamic changes that have taken place in the settlement pattern of the UnitedStates in the twentieth century. The country has changed from an agriculturalbase to preeminence in industry and then to a dominant service-centeredeconomy and high-technology giant. These changes in the economic structureoccurred within a rapid shift of settlement patterns to urbanization and thensuburbanization. The MSA system of reporting reflects these dynamic changes.

Canada defines a metropolitan area as a very large urban area that has a highdegree of economic and social integration. The Canadian counterpart of theMSA is the census metropolitan area (CMA), with Toronto having the largestpopulation (more than 3.5 million in the late 1990s).

Suggested Readings: Canada Year Book, Ottawa: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, annual;David T. Herbert and Colin J. Thomas, Cities in Space, City as Place, New York: John Wiley &Sons, 1997; U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, Washington, D.C.:Author, annual.

Microclimates. The term microclimate has several applications in geography.Microclimate refers to the climate in a small area. Climate may change appre-ciably over a relatively short distance, depending on variations in landform,wind patterns, vegetation cover, and orientation to the sun. The narrow stripof land along an ocean coast may have a decidedly different climate from aplace only a few miles inland.

One of the most striking examples of microclimate is the urban heat island.Building materials used in cities absorb more of the sun’s shortwave radiation

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and transform that energy into long-wave radiation, or sensible heat. Thus, theaverage temperature of the city center is warmer than other areas of the city,the surrounding suburbs, and the rural areas beyond.

A microclimate can exist in an area as small as a few hundred square feet orextend to a lengthy coastline. The type of forest cover can make a difference inthe climate of the forest floor. A pine forest, for example, cuts out about 30 per-cent of incoming sunlight. A birch forest, on the other hand, cuts out 60 per-cent of incoming sunlight. Everything else being equal, the microclimates ofeach of these forest floors are measurably different.

Agriculturists are aware of microclimatic differences. On rolling terrain,some fields are in partial shadow longer than others. Soil temperatures differ inthese instances, and the keen agriculturist plans crop locations accordingly.

During the long period of an ecological succession, one of a series of distinctmicroclimates accompanies each plant community in the gradual transitionfrom pioneer stage to the climax vegetative cover. Early plant communities aretolerant of high solar radiation and changeable soil temperatures. Once thesepioneer-stage plants have set root and produced humus over a long enough pe-riod of time, bacteria and other insect life inhabit the place. Fallen and decay-ing leaves add to the nutrient level of the surface microclimate. At a suitabletime, a successor plant community moves in and displaces the pioneer group.The new plants have a heavier branch and leaf configuration, which cool theair and soil, creating yet another microclimate at the surface.

Agricultural origins in prehistory can be traced to microclimates. In themountain arc surrounding the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers inSouthwest Asia, a series of varied microclimates are found. The many slopesand valleys, wind patterns, and soil types found within the region near the an-cient city of Jarmo provided abundant opportunities for growing a wide varietyof grains. Theory holds that early humans used this grain and eventually real-ized that the seeds could be used to grow a new crop the following growing sea-son. There are, of course, a number of other theories of agricultural origin (forexample, see Carl Sauer).

Suggested Readings: Wallace E. Akin, Global Patterns: Climate, Vegetation, and Soil, Norman:University of Oklahoma Press, 1991; Edward Linacre, Climate Data and Resources, New York:Routledge, 1992.

Migration. Theory holds that humans originated in East Africa. From this re-gion, in time, groups of people migrated in all directions. Migration in its vari-ous forms has been occurring since that time. The mass movements of humangroups have led to the development of distinct cultures throughout the inhab-ited world. Subsequent migrations out of established culture hearths resultedin exchanges of ideas, goods, and processes. Migration and human encounter isa prime example of spatial interaction.

Migration takes place on all scales, from intercontinental to intraregional.The actual relocation of residence may be generated by so-called push and pull

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factors. That is, a culture group may find it intolerable to stay at a locationwhere the political regime has changed and the group is endangered. Nazi Ger-many in the 1930s was a clear threat to the Jewish population, and many Jewsleft for other regions. In this case, a compelling push factor existed. A pull fac-tor is usually associated with the migration of young people from small townsand rural areas in search of employment in large cities. In this case, the pull ofmore-lucrative jobs is the key motivator.

Both push and pull factors may be in play in the same migration. Considerthe mass migrations of African Americans from the South in the Reconstruc-tion years following the American Civil War and continuing into the twenti-eth century. The push was a shortage of jobs in the South and the prejudicialsocial setting in which they lived, whereas the pull was provided by employ-ment opportunities in northern and midwestern cities as the Industrial Revo-lution took hold in the United States and Canada.

Long-distance migrations have taken place in the past and are occurringtoday. The massive slave trade during the colonial period, from about 1500 to1800, is a classic example of a forced migration. Millions of Africans were up-rooted from their homes and forced to move to countries in the Western Hemi-sphere. They were sold as property and set to work on farms and plantations.Siberian labor camps were the destinations for thousands of people in Russia(and the Soviet Union) during periods of repression. The past several decadeshave seen millions of Asians from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and othercountries migrate to the United States and Canada in search of employmentand a new life. This cultural diffusion is continuously occurring and bringingchange to both the migrants and the regions in which they settle.

The century of migration, as it has been called, marked the period from 1815to 1915. During that era, millions of people, primarily from European coun-tries, migrated to the United States and Canada. This massive flow of people ofvarious origins represented a transplantation of culture of unprecedented im-portance. The European immigrants changed the ethnic base of both theUnited States and Canada, and this influx of people led to the notion of themelting pot, the belief that all who entered the new society would leave be-hind their native cultures and become members of an American culture.

Migrations may happen when employment opportunities open in coun-tries where the local supply of labor has diminished. Some western Europeancountries that were first to complete the demographic transition now havelower numbers of people of working age. To fill this void, thousands have mi-grated to these countries from Spain, Greece, Turkey, and the North Africanregion.

Conflicts have been the motivator for countless migrations through time.The 2001 war against terrorism in Afghanistan resulted in tens of thousands ofAfghanis being forced to migrate from their homes. These people joined thegrowing legions of refugees, people forced to leave their home country. TheUnited Nations estimated that in 2000 there were nearly 25 million refugees

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worldwide. All are victims of armed conflict, political upheavals, or a numberof forms of social oppression.

During the period of colonialism, limits were placed on the number of in-digenous people who could migrate into the primate city. When colonialismended, these limitations were lifted and millions of new residents were added toalready-crowded cities.

Environmental conditions have also been at the root of mass migrations.The Irish potato famine in 1840 forced thousands of people to leave the agri-cultural regions of Ireland and to migrate to the United States. Environmentalsituations can also be created from migration. In peninsular Florida, increasednumbers of people have settled along both the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. In ad-dition, large-scale agricultural activities have been established south of LakeOkeechobee. People and agriculture both need water; the water is taken fromLake Okeechobee before it can flow south to maintain the Everglades. In orderto save the Everglades from destruction and to satisfy the growing needs forwater by growing populations, the South Florida Water Management Districtnow monitors and manages a 1,800-mile system of canals and water-diversionpipes set in place to balance water flow.

Environmental disruptions during the 1930s in the United States forcedthousands to leave the Dust Bowl in the Midwest for the greener pastures ofCalifornia. Migration can have its genesis in economic, political, technologi-cal, and cultural factors. As such, it is certain that migrations of global andlocal dimensions will occur with frequency in the future.

Suggested Readings: Patricia Gober, “Americans on the Move,” Population Bulletin, vol.48, Population Reference Bureau, 1993; Vaughn Robinson, Geography and Migration, Lon-don: Edward Elgar, 1996; United Nations High Commission for Refugees Home Page,www.unhcr.ch.

Monsoon. The word monsoon comes from the Arabic mausim, meaning season.Monsoon is associated with weather and climate because of its relationship towind patterns that reverse direction 180 degrees, or close to it, in a yearly cycle.Arab sailors used the word mausim to note the seasonal change in wind direc-tion over the Indian Ocean.

Monsoons in the South Asian region are marked by winds from the south-west during the warm, moist summer and a reversal to northeast winds in thecool, dry winter. In the summer, a thermal low-pressure system is located overthe Asian landmass. Moisture-laden warm air moves across the Indian Oceantoward this thermal low. The air mass passes over the Indian subcontinent,bringing rains for the upcoming agricultural season. India’s west coast and theGanges River Valley to the north receive more than 60 inches of rainfall peryear. The amounts can vary widely. Cherrapungi is located in eastern India justnorth of Bangladesh, at the southern margin of the Himalayas. This place oncereceived 31 feet of rain in one month and 87 feet in one year. Cherrapungi isthe world leader in rainfall accumulation.

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In the winter, the monsoon is a northeast wind blowing out of Asia and pass-ing across the Indian subcontinent. The wind direction reversal occurs follow-ing the development of a thermal high-pressure system that forms over Asia inthe region of eastern Siberia and Mongolia. During the winter monsoon, SouthAsia enters a decidedly dry season and remains in this pattern until the arrivalof rains in the spring.

The South Asian farmer plans the beginning of the agricultural seasonaround the arrival of the summer monsoon rain. The rainy season is remarkablypredictable. Fields are readied, and all preparations are made in anticipation ofthe first rains. Occasionally, the monsoon arrives earlier or later than expected.As a result, the crop that year may be adversely affected. A summer may bringtoo little rain, and sometimes the rains are so torrential and of such long dura-tion that severe flooding occurs, crops are lost, and homes ruined. Fortunately,the summer monsoon does not significantly vary from year to year in time of ar-rival and amount of precipitation.

Much of Indian literature and poetry is focused on the monsoon and the cru-cial part it plays in the livelihood of people in the nation. The first rains of thesummer monsoon are anxiously awaited. When the rains finally come, they arecalled “the burst of the monsoon.”

The same high-pressure system that sends cool, dry air over South Asia dur-ing the winter monsoon affects East Asia as well. Winds from this high-pressure system flow from the northwest over the deserts of Mongolia and pickup fine particulate matter and eventually deposit it in northern China. Thismaterial is the fertile loess that is the main constituent of the Loess Plateaunear the Hwang He, China’s Yellow River.

Suggested Readings: Edward Aguado and James E. Burt, Understanding Weather and Climate,

Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999; P. J. Webster, “Monsoons,” Scientific American,

August 1981.

Multinational corporation. See Transnational corporation.

Multinational state. A country (state) that includes at least one ethnic minor-ity is considered multinational in its composition. Nation refers to a cultural,or ethnic, group. By this definition, most countries of the world are multina-tional states. A multinational state may have reasonably good relations be-tween the ethnic groups, or there may be discrimination of a minority group, alevel of tension between groups, or worse.

In many cases, segregation of ethnic groups may result. The settlement ofthe French ethnic group in Canada came about over a long period of time.The French took root early in Canadian history and located along the St.Lawrence River in the current province of Quebec. Due in part to their con-centration, the French maintained their cultural identity despite the presenceof the majority English populace throughout the rest of Canada. Retention oftheir own language and way of life was the strongest element setting the

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French Canadians apart. In recent years, feelings of strong nationalism andclaims of unequal treatment by the Canadian national government promptedthe French Canadians to demand secession from Canada. Although provin-cial voting returns on two occasions did not reach the levels needed to movetoward secession, many in French Canada believe strongly that it will eventu-ally happen.

Conflict within countries among ethnic groups can also result in segrega-tion. The long-term fighting in Northern Ireland exemplifies this situation.Segregation of Turks and Cypriots in Cyprus is another example. Since 1974,Cyprus has been partitioned, and United Nations personnel have been on dutyensuring that fighting does not break out between the two ethnic groups.

The United Kingdom is an example of a multinational state. England, Scot-land, Wales, and Northern Ireland are the constituents in this grouping of eth-nic entities. The groups have coexisted in relatively calm conditions over timeexcept, of course, for the turmoil in Northern Ireland.

The majority group in power can mandate multinational conflict. This oc-curred in South Africa during the twentieth-century era of apartheid, whenblack Africans were isolated to specified areas and given limited permission totravel outside these confines. In severe cases of multinational strife, groups maybe expelled or even eliminated. Members of the Indian culture group wereforced out of Uganda when Idi Amin was in power in the 1970s, and in 1984,Nigeria expelled people from neighboring Ghana.

Attempts at wholesale extermination have been rare but nonethelesswrenching. In the 1990s, many Kurds in Iraq were killed by poison gas al-legedly at the order of the Iraqi leadership. During World War II, Nazi Ger-many attempted to exterminate its entire Jewish population. When the warended, it was determined that six million Jewish people had been killed.

Atrocities such as these do not occur in all multinational states. Yet, dis-crimination and suppression is not uncommon. In the United States, Ameri-can Indians were stripped of their land and placed in reservations. In theSouth, African Americans suffered great injustices, beginning with their subju-gation under the practice of slavery.

By the end of the twentieth century, a rash of rising ethnic nationalisticmovements were underway. With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, eth-nic groups in that region demanded independence. Russia’s long battle withChechnya was waged in earnest to keep the Chechens from seceding. Had theybeen successful, the Russians feared that other ethnic groups, numerous in Rus-sia, would attempt the same action.

The plight of the Kurds in Iraq is unusual in that they represent a culturegroup that is found in a region spanning three countries: Turkey, Iraq, and Iran.Until the 1920s, the Kurds had their own homeland in the country of Kurdis-tan. However, boundary changes proclaimed following World War II and assur-ing the Kurds of their own homeland were abrogated by Turkey in 1928. As aresult, the Kurds are an ethnic group without a country of their own.

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Suggested Readings: Liz Fawcett, Religion, Ethnicity and Social Change, New York: St. Martin’sPress, 2000; Terance W. Haverluk, “The Changing Geography of U.S. Hispanics, 1850–1990,”Journal of Geography, vol. 96 (1997).

Multiple-nuclei model. In 1945, American geographers Chauncey Harris andEdward Ullman created a model of urban structure that departed from the sin-gle central business district (CBD) type proposed in the concentric zonemodel and sector model developed earlier. The multiple-nuclei model sug-gested that large cities grow around a number of focal points, or nuclei. Harrisand Ullman contended that the multiple-nuclei concept was especially true incities that were rapidly expanding in area.

Harris and Ullman based their model on four principles:

1. A nucleus may develop around a specialized facility, such as a transportationhub or a shopping center. In these instances, there may be little or no stimu-lus from the CBD; the nuclei are growth points in and of themselves.

2. The clustering of industries for mutual locational advantage could produce anucleus that attracts necessary supporting firms and services (see Agglomera-

tion).

3. Some functions tend to repel one another in terms of location. That is, a con-centration of heavy industry is not likely to be located next to high-cost resi-dential housing or a municipal theme park.

4. Some functions avoid areas with high rent costs. Used car lots, for instance,are not likely to be found near the nuclei centers, where land costs are higher,nor will they be located next to a new shopping mall.

The multiple-nuclei model is far more complex than those that propose asingle growth center at the CBD. As such, the multiple-nuclei model has beencriticized by some experts, who said it attempts to replicate actual urban set-tings too closely and in doing so loses its potential for prediction. On the otherhand, most urban geographers believe that the model is more reflective of theway cities have grown, the manner in which they function, and the complexitythat marks urban structure.

The multiple-nuclei model suggests, for example, that as a city expands be-yond its original areal limits, it may absorb a center that previously existed in-dependently. Once absorbed into the larger city, the smaller center may wellbecome another nucleus. Also, several nuclei may have been part of the cityfrom the beginning and will continue to serve as growth points. The growthand persistence of any nucleus will depend on its ability to remain a viablefocus of economic or social activity.

As cities grew to incorporate smaller centers and as suburbanization oc-curred following World War II, the emergence of new growth points was seenmore frequently. In many metropolitan areas, large self-contained edge citieshave grown along interstate beltways. These nuclei function essentially inde-pendent of an existing CBD or other nuclei.


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Suggested Readings: Chauncy D. Harris, “The Nature of Cities and Urban Growth in theLast Half Century,” Urban Geography, vol. 18 (1997); Philip Kivell, Land and the City: Patterns

and Processes of Urban Change, London: Routledge, 1993; Web site for the Urban MorphologyResearch Group in the School of Geography, University of Birmingham, England, www.bham.ac.uk/geography.

Multiplier effect. When a new industry is successful, its presence will set inmotion a series of economic events that eventually leads to greater growthwithin its region. The growth will take place not only in the new industry butalso in the attraction of other comparable forms and in the infrastructure andservice sector necessary to support industrial expansion. The term multiplier ef-fect refers to the added growth that occurs when a successful operation acts as agenerator for further widespread growth.

In the 1950s, Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal used the phrase “circularand cumulative causation” to describe the sequence of events that unfoldswhen an economic system is positively stimulated by the addition of a success-ful new firm. The new industry adds more jobs, not only in the firm but also inconstruction and the building of infrastructure. In doing so, both the basic andnonbasic sectors benefit through expansion. As the firm grows, the pool ofhighly trained workers expands. With more workers added to the mix, thenumber of families expands. The added number of people necessitates shop-ping centers, schools, medical facilities, and a myriad of other functions andservices. With added firm success and growth in the supporting activities, andincreases in population, more income is available and the number of employ-ment options increases. This leads to more buying power and a new impetus forgrowth in banking, education (both formal and vocational), and legal services.In time, with continued success and gains through invention and innovation,the business may well become a growth pole, a leader in its industry class.Achieving this status acts as a magnet for comparable and supportive industriesto locate in proximity to the generating firm, to take advantage of the systemthat has been created (see Agglomeration).

Success stories of the type summarized here have not been rare. The eco-nomic history of the United States, Canada, western Europe, Japan, Australia,and other countries in the developed world is replete with examples of dy-namic growth generating a multiplier effect.

The hope is held that comparable growth patterns will be realized in the de-veloping world. In many regions of the developing world, a kind of reversal ofMyrdal’s circular and cumulative causation has been the rule. Instead of growthoccurring on the heels of new industrial development, declines in economicactivity or the inability of sound business ventures to take hold have resulted ina drain of qualified workers to other regions. This leads to a lower demand forinfrastructural improvements and diminished income levels. Less incomemeans less buying power and a shortage of essential services, including goodmedical delivery systems. Even safe water may become scarce. A negative se-

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quence of outcomes is the antithesis of a multiplier effect, and its occurrence inthe developing world is all too common.

Suggested Readings: J. W. Harrington and Barney Warf, Industrial Location, New York: Rout-ledge, 1995; James O. Wheeler et al., Economic Geography, 3rd. ed., New York: John Wiley &Sons, 1998.

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Nation-state. The term nation-state combines political and cultural aspects. Inthis sense, “nation” represents a cohesive grouping of people who share a singlelanguage and cultural background and are committed to common politicalgoals. The “state” in nation-state refers to the political entity of the nation.The state has sovereignty over its territory. Therefore, a nation-state is a clearlydelineated area that maintains its political sovereignty and contains a nation,or populace, held together by shared cultural attributes and the bonds of loyaltyand allegiance to the state.

The criteria of loyalty and allegiance are crucial to the success and mainte-nance of the nation-state. They are more important than the common culturalattributes of the people. During the Vietnam War, the people of South Viet-nam had a common cultural background and a single language. The economyof the country was primarily agricultural. The people clearly were representa-tive of a nation. Yet, allegiance to the state and identification with it werelacking. The South Vietnamese people were hamlet oriented and inward look-ing. Attempts to rally them to take a more expansive political view and toidentify with the state were unsuccessful. It was not uncommon for South Viet-namese soldiers to leave their military unit and return to their villages duringthe time of rice harvesting.

The nation-state provides a degree of order within its boundaries throughthe establishment of governmental controls and organization and with thesanctions and support provided by the people. The nation-state also providesprotection for its people and institutions, both internally and from externalthreats, through the establishment of police and military forces. This aspect ofnation-state activity is in place with the approval of the populace. Should the

people not support military engagements contemplated by the nation-state, orif internal actions are viewed to be repressive, the people can voice theirobjections and seek remedies through the political processes in place. Thenation-state establishes administrative, legislative, political, and legal systemsthat are in tune with the desires of the people.

Although the true nation-state is rare, a number of countries are recognizedas having achieved a close approximation. Among them are France, Sweden,Greece, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, and Japan. Korea, before Japanese occu-pation and annexation early in the twentieth century and its split into twocountries following World War II, would certainly have qualified as a nation-state. Should the long-sought reunification of North and South Korea comeabout, an opportunity for nation-state status may arise.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, a number ofnew nation-states have arrived on the international scene. The severing ofCzechoslovakia, a multinational state, resulted in two new nation-states: theCzech Republic and Slovakia.

During the 1930s, Nazi Germany insisted that German-speaking people inneighboring Austria and the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia were the same na-tionality as people in Germany and belonged in a single state. In this example,the nation-state idea compelled Nazi Germany to invade and occupy those tworegions.

In recent years, politicians and social scientists have expressed concernabout the usefulness of the nation-state in the new era of globalization. Manyexperts believe that the nation-state is an anachronism and that it is not thebest territorial organization for ensuring the rapid and unimpeded movementof goods and services in a fast-moving global economy. Some believe that thenation-state system should give way to the creation of larger and more logicallyconceived economic regions to ensure greater productivity and fewer delays indoing business. Ironically, these proclamations of consolidation are being madeat the same time that ethnicity is becoming increasingly important, along withdemands for greater recognition of existing nation-states and the creation ofnew nation-states.

Suggested Readings: George J. Demko and William B. Wood, Reordering the World: Geopoliti-

cal Perspectives in the Twenty-first Century, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1994; “The Rise ofEurope’s Little Nations,” Wilson Quarterly, vol. 18 (1994).

Natural boundary. A boundary that follows a geological feature is consideredto be a natural boundary. Boundaries of this type are found along rivers, lakes,deserts, and mountain ranges. River boundaries would seem to be ideal: theyprovide clear evidence of separation, and they are established and recognizedphysical features. In reality, however, river boundaries can change as riverschange course. Following flooding, a river’s course may shift, altering theboundary between states or countries. Shifting of river course has occurred anumber of times along the Mississippi River. The Rio Grande, separating the

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United States and Mexico, has frequently shifted its course, causing problemsin determining the exact location of the international boundary.

During the era of colonialism, the European occupiers of Africa, beginningin the late 1800s, chose rivers as boundaries. Doing so was a convenience forthe Europeans but devastating to the indigenous African culture groups, whichdelineated their territory using the entire watershed. By using rivers as bound-aries, the Europeans actually split African home territories down the middle.As a result, some of the home territory would be in a British colony, for in-stance, and some in a French colony. This practice has been disruptive toAfrican culture groups since the colonial period, because the boundaries cre-ated at that time are still in force.

Deserts may also serve as boundaries. The great Sahara Desert in Africa sep-arates a number of countries. Although boundaries in the desert are not asclearly identified as those marked by a river, there have been few territorial dis-putes, because the region is one of low population density.

Mountain ranges also serve as boundaries in a number of world regions.Along the western extent of South America, the Andes Mountains separateChile and Argentina, and farther to the north, Ecuador and Peru. Disagree-ments have ensued over the specific line intended to be the mountain boundarybetween Chile and Argentina. Initial inability to decide between lines markedby mountaintops or watershed perplexed Chile and Argentina almost to thepoint of conflict before the issue was finally resolved. Similar disputes have oc-curred between China and India over their common mountain boundary.

Lake boundaries are common in East Africa, where Uganda, Kenya, Tanza-nia, Zambia, and Mozambique all have a boundary on one of three large lakes.When boundaries are formed on bodies of water, the midline between thecountries is used to create the division. This procedure is usually effective.However, when there are competing claims of ownership of the body of wateritself, problems can arise. A case in point is the South China Sea, the entiretyof which is claimed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, whereas several otherSoutheast Asian countries lay claim to at least part of this strategically impor-tant body of water (see Median-line principle).

Suggested Readings: Gerald H. Blake, Maritime Boundaries, vol. 5, World Boundaries Series,London: Routledge, 1994; Herman Van der Wusten and John V. O’Loughlin, A Political Geogra-

phy of International Relations, New York: Routledge, 1991.

Natural hazards. Flooding, hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, earthquakes, vol-canic eruptions, landslides, and droughts are all examples of natural hazards.There are few inhabited places in the world that are totally free of natural haz-ards of some type. People take risks when they choose to live, for instance,along the San Andreas fault in California, or in Tokyo, Japan, or along the At-lantic coast in Georgia or South Carolina, where the threat of earthquake, hur-ricane, or typhoon is ever present. Yet, people do choose to build homes andlive in these places.

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In 1906, an earthquake destroyed much of San Francisco, but the rebuildingof the city began immediately following this catastrophe. An earthquake in1976 rocked China and claimed 242,000 lives; the rebuilding was begun soonafter the devastation ended. Hurricanes have hit Bangladesh on a number ofoccasions. In 1970, some 500,000 people lost their lives in a devastating hurri-cane and the flooding that followed. Today, this region of Bangladesh is evenmore densely populated. Why do people continue to reside in places withknown natural hazards? This question is best addressed in the context of envi-ronmental perception. People’s perception of an area having natural hazardsvaries greatly. For those who choose to live in such places, the risk of experi-encing a natural hazard is outweighed by the perceived positive attributes ofthe place. For example, millions of people live in earthquake-and-landslide-prone southern California. They know that the hazards are present, but forthem the California lifestyle and the region’s fine climate and scenic grandeurand its proximity to both the Pacific Ocean and mountain skiing outweigh thepotential danger.

There are other reasons why people choose to live in areas of natural haz-ards. Research on this topic shows that the perception of danger is diminishedbecause a serious earthquake, for example, is a rare incident. Also, earthquakesare hard to predict, and there may be differences of opinion among experts intheir estimation of when a seismic event will take place. In the case of a hurri-cane or typhoon, prediction is much easier. Yet, residents of the disturbancemay decide to stay in place until the storm passes, in hopes that the most de-structive winds will be diverted away from them. Finally, owners of property inregions of natural hazards may be reluctant to leave because they have a largemonetary investment in their property. It could also be true that an attempt tosell the property would fail simply because of its location. The perception byprospective buyers of living in a region of natural hazards could be quite differ-ent from that of the owner.

One of the most frequently occurring natural hazards is flooding. Humanshave always favored living close to bodies of water. A glance at a world map ofpopulation density shows high concentrations along coastlines and in thefloodplains of major rivers. Occupying a floodplain guarantees that high waterwill eventually cause damage.

The devastation from natural hazards is magnified when high concentra-tions of people live in their path. This is why Japan is so greatly affected by dis-astrous earthquakes and typhoons. There are more than 130 million people inJapan, and they live in an earthquake-prone land area roughly the size of Mon-tana. The earthquake in the crowded city of Kobe in the mid-1990s was enor-mously destructive, even though buildings and freeway structures wereengineered to be earthquake proof.

Suggested Readings: Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Web site,www.colorado.edu/hazards; Risa Palm, Natural Hazards: An Integrated Framework for Re-

search and Planning, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990; Graham A. Tobin

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and Burrell E. Montz, Natural Hazards: Explanation and Integration, New York: GuilfordPress, 1997.

Neocolonialism. Neocolonialism, the “new colonialism,” refers to the eco-nomic and political dependency remaining in former colonies despite gainingindependence from their colonial rulers. Within 20 years after the end ofWorld War II, the era of colonialism came to an end. Britain and France, thetwo leading colonial powers in Africa, began to relinquish control of theircolonies. Former colonies became newly minted sovereign states. However, thetrade relationships in place during the era of colonialism were, for the mostpart, retained. The inequitable levels of socioeconomic development thatmarked colonialism continued to plague the newly independent countries. In-dependence for the former colonies turned out to be a mixed blessing. On thepositive side, they were politically independent and could, in theory, charttheir own course. But along with independence, the new countries were leftwith the legacy of years of colonial rule.

The former colonies were poor and undeveloped. The colonial era saw littleinvestment in the infrastructure necessary for a country to fully develop its re-source base. Roads, railroad lines, communication systems, housing, and medi-cal delivery systems were either missing or in need of repair, development, orexpansion. Regions of potentially good agricultural land, if present, were notaccessible because surface transportation systems had never been built. Thecolonies were left with the task of completing the internal regional develop-ment of their basic infrastructure, a task not undertaken during colonialism.

When Europeans left the colonies, they put in place leaders who, in largepart, continued the political and economic practices used during colonialism.A small and privileged elite ruled the new countries and maintained trade rela-tionships that held the previous colonies in the same economic situation theyfaced during colonialism. Although the European countries were no longer po-litically in power, they ruled through economic arrangements. The term usedto describe this situation is neocolonialism.

The colonies were still linked to their former European rulers in a state ofdependency. Although they were politically independent, dependency theorysuggests that the former colonies still depended on the developed world asproviders of raw material and commodities and as a market for goods producedin the developing world.

The status of the former colonies is well summarized in the core-peripherymodel, in which they represent the periphery, that region of the world that hassuffered from low levels of socioeconomic development. The core-peripherytheme is prominent in Wallerstein’s world-system analysis, developed by so-cial scientist Immanuel Wallerstein, which states, in part, that there must be acore and a periphery in the global capitalist economic system. There are neo-colonialist overtones in Wallerstein’s theory, which states that any gain in eco-nomic level by the periphery will be countered by a greater gain in the core.

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Many development experts point to the presence in the developing world oftransnational corporations as another example of neocolonialism. These largeand powerful enterprises, based in the core, become established in developingcountries to take advantage of lower wage rates and the availability of raw ma-terials. Although these organizations provide jobs and income to workers inthe host country, the profits from the operation are exported to the homecountry in the core. This system has a striking resemblance to colonialism.

Suggested Readings: Rajesh Chandra, Industrialization and Development in the Third World, In-troduction to Development Series, London: Routledge, 1992; International Bank for Recon-struction and Development, World Bank, World Development Report, annual; Web site of theU.S. Agency for International Development, www.info.usaid.gov, provides information on de-velopment programs worldwide.

Network. In geography, the term network initially referred to the multipleconnections from point to point describing surface transportation systems.In this sense, the network is configured as an analog model of the systemunder analysis. Network modeling was developed to its fullest, complete withmathematical and statistical techniques, during the Quantitative Revolu-tion in geography. In this process, the essential aspects of the transportationsystem were isolated for study and specific determinations were made, for in-stance, of accessibility between and among points.

Other quantitative measures, such as network completeness, were also de-veloped. Measurements were made to determine the degree to which eachpoint in the network was connected to all other points (see Connectivity).Another measure determined directional bias in the network. For instance, inthe railroad system in the United States and Canada, the east–west lines arepredominant in number and amount of traffic compared to the north–southlines.

Clearly, a great deal of attention has been devoted to studying transportationsystem development, operation, and change, because of the importance of thisfunction in economic and social activities. Interest in studying networks hasexpanded in recent years. Geographers have created a body of literature on air-line networks. Since the deregulation of the airlines in the 1980s, a number ofchanges have occurred in the industry. Most pertinent to the geographer is thegrowth of the hub system. Particular airline companies have established cen-ters, or hubs, at selected terminals in major cities. Passengers are frequently re-quired to fly from or to a hub in making connections for their ultimatedestination. For instance, a passenger departing from Providence, Rhode Is-land, on Delta Airlines and heading for Albuquerque, New Mexico, will flyfirst to one of Delta’s major hubs, probably Atlanta, Georgia, to board anotherplane for the final leg of the journey. One can speak generally of the Delta Air-lines network that primarily serves the United States and several countries inLatin America but may also refer to the hub network, a limited set of routeswithin the Delta system.

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Network analysis extends to the vast and growing realm of electronic com-munications. Radio, television, and the Internet are examples of networks thatcan be analyzed and studied in terms of their spatial extent, degree of connec-tivity, directorial bias, and regional concentration.

Suggested Readings: Stanley Brunn and Thomas Leinbach, Collapsing Space and Time: Geo-

graphic Aspects of Communication and Information, London: HarperCollins Academic, 1991;Nigel Thrift, Spatial Formations, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1996.

New industrial countries. The new international division of labor reflectsbasic changes in the global structuring of economic activity. The core hasdeemphasized the manufacture of tangible goods within its own borders.Transnational corporations have been established in countries of the develop-ing world to take advantage of low labor costs and other incentives (see Core-periphery model). In most cases, the host countries in the periphery remaineconomically dependent on the core and are unable to develop their own vi-able manufacturing and trade arrangements. They remain much as they wereunder colonialism (see Dependency theory). The exceptions to this situationare designated as new industrial countries (NICs).

Some areas have struggled upward on the economic ladder and have beensuccessful in establishing a sound manufacturing base and a viable global trad-ing position. Among these NICs are the Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan,Singapore, and Hong Kong). Two of these entities are city-states, Singaporeand Hong Kong. Also considered NICs are Mexico, Brazil, and China, all ofwhom have developed an economic sector that is strong in manufacturing andtrade.

Mexico is a member country of the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), along with Canada and the United States. NAFTA established atariff-free trading arrangement to spur greater economic cooperation and ex-changes of goods and commodities among the three countries. The phasing outof the maquiladora (factory) program between the United States and Mexicowill allow the domestic marketing of manufactured goods produced in themany U.S.-owned border factories in Mexico.

Economic successes in South Korea and Taiwan were patterned on theJapanese model. Japan resumed its dynamic economic growth following its de-feat in World War II. With monetary assistance from the United States, Japanrapidly rose to become one of the leading economic forces in the world. Tai-wan, a refuge for the nationalist Chinese government following the 1949takeover of China by Mao Tse Tung and the Chinese Communist Party, hasalso risen to prominence in manufacturing and global trade. Both of theseNICs cater to a large local market purchasing manufactured goods.

Countries in the developing world, it is hoped, will follow a path similar tothat of the current NICs. Manufacturing is increasing in these countries,known as the periphery, but much of it is still controlled by the transnationalcorporations based in the core.


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Suggested Readings: A. Chowdhury and I. Islam, The Newly Industrialized Economics of East

Asia, New York: Routledge, 1993; M. Freeman, Atlas of the World Economy, New York: Simon &Schuster, 1991.

New international division of labor. The new international division of labor(NIDL) reflects dramatic changes in the economic structure of the so-calledold industrial countries (OICs) in the core (urban-industrial countries) andcountries in the periphery, or the developing world. Toward the end of thetwentieth century, the OICs entered a phase of deindustrialization coupledwith rapid increases in service-sector and high-technology activities. The dein-dustrialization aspect of change saw a decline in the production of tangiblegoods within the OICs, but it did not mean that the OICs were significantlylessening their efforts in this sector. Instead of producing manufactured goodswithin their own borders, the OICs established assembly and production facil-ities in the developing world. In these settings, the OICs could take advantageof cheap labor, inexpensive land, tax breaks, and other incentives to ensuregreater profits in their operation.

Giant transnational corporations operated the new plants set up by theOICs. Although the advent of transnational corporations resulted in the trans-fer of some industrial technology to the developing world, the system was setup to favor the OICs and to essentially disallow host countries from further de-veloping an industrial base for their own advantage. These arrangements weremade by limiting host country operations to the production of componentsused in the manufacture of a product. Rarely was a fully integrated and com-plex manufacturing or industrial system established in a developing country.Consequently, the host country was not in a position to benefit in its own rightthrough the attraction of comparable and supportive industries, an outcome re-flective of growth in the OICs (see Agglomeration and Multiplier effect).

Limited in their ability to expand their economic systems, developing coun-tries remain dependent on the transnational corporations in the wealthy corenations, just as they were during the era of colonialism (from about the late1800s to the mid-twentieth century). Further, the presence of factories run bytransnational corporations in the host countries has little, if any, connection tothe local economy. Although the factories provide jobs to local workers and amarket for some raw materials, virtually all of the profits are sent to thetransnational corporate headquarters in the core. In this case, the similaritywith operations under colonialism is evident (see dependency theory). An-other similarity with colonialism is the lack of attention on the part of thetransnational corporations to full regional development within the host coun-tries.

The dependent status of the developing countries is also seen in their tradearrangements, which are almost exclusively with OICs. There is little eco-nomic activity between developing countries. The limited aspect of their in-volvement in the production process precludes their developing a more holistic


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and potentially profitable industrial base. Nearly all research and developmenton product lines is completed at facilities within the core.

One outcome of the NIDL that is promising is the success of the AsianTigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong) and countries suchas Mexico, Brazil, and China, whose manufacturing and trade arrangementshave made them important players on the world market. All of these coun-tries have risen from low socioeconomic levels to the status identified as newindustrial countries. They are no longer member countries in the developingworld.

Suggested Readings: J. Allen and C. Hamnett, A Shrinking World: Global Unevenness and In-

equality, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1995; Doreen Massey, Spatial Divisions of

Labor: Social Structures and the Geography of Production, 2nd ed., New York: Routledge, 1995.


Nomadic herding. The practice of nomadic herding, a form of pastoralism, iscomplex and widespread. Nomadic herding is the controlled movement oflivestock to areas with sufficient grasses and water for sustenance. This typeof land use has been practiced for more than 10,000 years, predating the originsof agriculture. Nomadic herding is the most extensive of all land-use forms. Ina yearly cycle, herders may move their animals hundreds of miles in search ofplentiful forage and an adequate water supply.

Nomadic herding is found in the arctic regions of northern Canada andEurasia, the arid lands from Southwest Asia east to Mongolia, the grasslands ofthe Sahel region of northern Africa, and in southwestern Africa. Herders withsheep, goats, camels, cattle, or yaks may be on the move throughout the year insearch of forage for their animals. Some may travel periodically, moving tohigher elevations in the summers and to valleys in winter. These herders areconsidered seminomadic (see Transhumance).

The activity of the nomadic herders is one of subsistence and normally in-volves no economic functions. Nomadic herders must be extremely knowl-edgeable about the physical environment. They must know precisely when tomove their herds to locations that will provide adequate grass and water tokeep the animals healthy. The animals provide the herders with food, skins fortents and shelters, and furs for clothing.

Nomadic herding is a land use that is in general decline for a number of rea-sons. Large areas of grazing land, especially in Africa, have been converted toagricultural fields in response to increased human populations. Many nomadicherders have given up the practice and taken jobs in the growing cities of Asiaand Africa. Others have retained their herds but settled in one location ratherthan continuing the pattern of migration. Drought conditions in the Sahel inthe last two decades of the twentieth century left previously rich grazing landparched and desolate. Changing environmental situations such as this have ledto a further decline in nomadic herding.

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Suggested Readings: Claudia Chang and Harold A. Kostner, Pastoralists at the Periphery:

Herders in a Capitalist World, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994; Harry M. Kaiser etal., Agricultural Dimensions of Global Climatic Change, Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie’s Press,1993.

Nongovernmental organization. A major dilemma in developing countries isthe inability to generate and sustain positive socioeconomic growth. Enormousinequities exist in the core-periphery relationship, in which wealthy developedcountries represent the core and poorer developing nations the periphery (seeCore-periphery model). Many of the socioeconomic disadvantages of coun-tries in the periphery had their origins in the era of colonialism, from about thelate 1800s to the mid-twentieth century.

In recent years a number of leading global organizations, such as the WorldBank, the International Monetary Fund, and development offices within theUnited Nations, have called for greater cooperative efforts at every geographiclevel to reverse the downward spiral in the developing world. Due to eithertheir inability or reluctance, national governments in developing countrieshave not created the economic setting necessary to ensure overall socioeco-nomic success. To assist these countries in overcoming their negative economicstatus, a cooperative effort involving organizations at all levels, from local tointernational, has been generated. Virtually all of these organizations are non-governmental and nonprofit in nature.

These nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) number in the thousandsglobally and represent every aspect of concern in the developing world. Thereare NGOs devoted to human rights issues, women’s rights, environmental con-cerns, and health issues. Most of the NGOs are found within individual coun-tries, working with the people and the government to help solve problems.

NGOs devoted to generating positive economic development may providetechnical assistance to a start-up firm manufacturing building materials. An-other NGO may have established connections with medical equipment dealersin a developed country and is working to establish and equip a field hospital inthe rural area of a developing country. Religious or professional organizations,research firms, or private organizations may support NGOs. One of the mostnotable NGOs, Doctors Without Borders, is based in the core and is foundthroughout the periphery, providing much-needed medical assistance. This or-ganization organizes the visits of medical professions to countries that are ex-tremely short of doctors and other health care professionals. Through thisprogram, thousands of people in poor, developing countries have been givenmedical attention.

Some NGOs assist acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) suffer-ers and their families throughout the developing world. The rapid spread ofthis insidious disease has overwhelmed local governments, especially inSub-Saharan Africa. NGOs have been able to help in situations where thegovernment cannot.


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The NGO movement has steadily grown in importance and strength. Forexample, the Forum of African Voluntary Development Organizations is a re-gional organization of African countries established to provide assistance toone another on any and all development questions, to exchange ideas, and toshare expertise on economic experiences and plans. The developing worldneeds more of these self-help efforts to enhance its collective opportunity forsound socioeconomic growth.

Suggested Readings: R. Bennett and R. Estall, Global Change and Challenge: Geography for the

1990s, New York: Routledge, 1991; Arthur Morris, Geography and Development, London: Uni-versity College Press, 1998.

North American Free Trade Agreement. The United States, Canada, andMexico entered into an agreement in 1993 to create a regional free-tradeunion. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) grew out of anearlier pact between the United States and Canada, which aimed at reducingtariffs, stimulating more trade, and establishing true economic integration be-tween the two countries. Even earlier (1965), Canada and the United Statesmade initial strides along the course of economic cooperation and tariff reduc-tion with the enactment of the Canadian–United States Automotive Agree-ment. In this pact, tariffs were eliminated on automobiles and automotivecomponent sales. In addition, a strong cooperative relationship was forged be-tween the two countries in the automotive industry.

NAFTA is patterned on the European Union, a powerful 16-country eco-nomic grouping. Unlike the European Union, however, NAFTA is not seekingto create a common currency. With more than 400 million people in the threemember countries, NAFTA is second only to the European Union in popula-tion size.

NAFTA may be another step along the way to the creation of an even largerfree-trade region. In time, the remainder of Latin America may join with theNAFTA countries to form the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a union thatwould include virtually every country in the Western Hemisphere.

The immediate aims of NAFTA are to eliminate tariffs on all agriculturalgoods and most manufactured products by the year 2010. In addition, NAFTAeases previous restrictions on the movement of executives and other profes-sionals between the three countries.

Regional trade groupings like the European Union and NAFTA are repre-sentative of the globalization of economic activity. In this movement, coun-tries in the developed world are setting up manufacturing plants in countries inthe developing world to take advantage of lower wage rates. Transnationalcorporations, with headquarters located in countries in the developed world,manage many of these operations (see Outsourcing).

The United States and Mexico have a long history of economic cooperation,especially in the establishment of manufacturing plants along their commoninternational border. The maquiladora program, for instance, was set up to pro-


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duce U.S. manufactured goods in Mexican factories. These goods are thenshipped back to the United States duty free. Under this arrangement, theUnited States profits from the lower Mexican wage rate, and Mexico gainsthousands of jobs for its workers. Under NAFTA, the maquiladora program willbe phased out, and goods produced in the border factories will be marketed inMexico as well as in the United States.

Overall, regional trade groupings are economically successful. However,there are concerns about working conditions in the Mexican border factories,complaints of unsanitary housing developments in border towns, and problemswith environmental degradation and the dumping of industrial refuse into theRio Grande. In addition, workers in the United States claim that jobs are beinglost as production moves across the border. There is also the general claim thatregional trade groupings like NAFTA stimulate trade increases primarilyamong the developed countries.

Suggested Readings: Christopher D. Merrett, “Nation-States in Continental Markets: ThePolitical Geography of Free Trade,” Journal of Geography, vol. 96 (1997); “A Greener or BrownerMexico?” The Economist, 7 August 1999.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A new global balance of power evolvedfollowing the end of World War II, in 1945. The United States and the SovietUnion (USSR) emerged as dominant forces on the world scene, and their dia-metrically opposed political systems created an adversarial relationship betweenthem. Within this tense political climate, the era of the cold war was about tobegin. In response to concern about the expansion of Soviet influence in West-ern Europe, a military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) was established in 1949 to counter any threats. NATO included theUnited States, Canada, and 14 countries in Western Europe (Belgium, Den-mark, France, West Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Nether-lands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom). All theNATO countries except France and Spain agreed to commit military personnel,should it become necessary. NATO headquarters was initially set up in Franceand was eventually relocated to Brussels, Belgium.

NATO was one of several multinational military organizations established inthe post–World War II years to contain the spread of communism from the So-viet Union and China. Other military alliances included the Central TreatyOrganization in western Asia and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.

The basic assumption guiding the operation of these agreements was that ifany participating country was threatened or attacked by a belligerent state, allmembers were bound to engage in its defense. The bipolar nature of globalgeopolitics became even more pronounced in 1955, when Bulgaria, Czechoslo-vakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Unionformed the Warsaw Pact to counter the presence of NATO. The north–southtier of Eastern European countries provided the Soviet Union with a bufferzone to thwart further military invasions of its territory. The Soviet Union had

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been invaded by French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces in the nine-teenth century and by Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler’s army during WorldWar II. The Soviets vowed not to allow this kind of incursion to happen again.

When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, the Warsaw Pact also be-came defunct, and the role of NATO changed considerably. The threat of So-viet expansion abruptly ended and geopolitical alignments were significantlyaltered. The role of NATO then shifted to protection of the newly emergingEuropean Union, a supranational organization created in 1992 to form an eco-nomic union of European states, and to addressing rising ethnic disturbances inthe Balkan states (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedo-nia, Romania, and Serbia). At the same time, a number of Eastern Europeancountries, free following the demise of the Warsaw Pact, sought membership inboth the European Union and NATO. In 1999, Poland, the Czech Republic,and Hungary were granted membership in NATO. Additional eastern Euro-pean countries are also being considered for membership.

Discussions have taken place over the years on the subject of extendingNATO membership to Russia. Hard-liners in Russia have opposed thisprospect, citing that it would not be in the country’s interest to be bound bymilitary alliance to provide armed support in conflicts in which the Russianshave no direct connection. On the positive side, it is argued that all countriesin the developed world are vulnerable to the threat of conflict and terrorist ac-tivities from countries in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. In response tothe changing geopolitical situation, Russia became a limited partner of NATOin 2002. Membership in the newly created NATO–Moscow Council allowedRussia to take part in discussions on antiterrorism initiatives, crisis manage-ment, peacekeeping, and military maneuvers. However, Russia does not have abinding vote in major NATO decisions. Also in 2002, NATO invited Bulgaria,Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia to become mem-bers. It is expected that all seven countries will join NATO in 2004.

Suggested Readings: Brian B. Blouet, “The Political Geography of Europe: 1900–2000, A.D.,”Journal of Geography, vol. 95 (1996); R. Muir, Political Geography: A New Introduction, New York:John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

North–South. The term North–South refers to the division of the world intorich and poor countries, the developed and underdeveloped worlds, and thecore-periphery regional dichotomy (see Core-periphery model). The name de-rives from the title of a report submitted in 1980 to the United Nations: North-South: A Programme of Survival. The report represented a two-year effort on thepart of members of the Independent Commission for Developmental Issues(the North-South Commission), a group of international experts headed byWilly Brandt, then chancellor of West Germany. The Brandt Report, as itcame to be known, demanded that greater attention be paid to the developingcountries in the South and that they be integrated more effectively into theglobal economic system. The Brandt Report included a map showing the

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boundary separating the North and the South. Even though Australia and NewZealand are in the Southern Hemisphere, they are both members of the Northin a developmental context.

Brandt’s message in the foreword of the report signaled the compelling na-ture of the socioeconomic disparity between the two regions:

This report is based on the most simple of common interests—humanity wants tosurvive and, one can add, it has the moral duty to survive. This raises not onlyclassical questions of war and peace, but also the questions how can one defeathunger in the world, overcome mass misery, and meet the challenge of the in-equality in living conditions between rich and poor. To express it in a few words:This report is about peace.

By the time of the submission of the Brandt Report, it was clear that the devel-opment gap separating the rich and poor countries was widening.

In an effort to reduce the great disparities, the North-South Commission in1980 recommended a sharp increase in aid to developing countries. It was pro-posed that all countries in the North increase their development assistance toan amount equal to 0.7 percent of their gross national product (GNP) by 1985and to 1 percent by 2000. Although some countries in the North met their ob-ligations, most did not. By the mid-1990s the average contribution from theNorth was about 0.3 percent of GNP, and in 2000 the amount had dropped to0.2 percent.

In February 2000, a conference organized by the cross-party, nonprofit Devel-opment and Peace Foundation and the Willy Brandt Foundation was held to de-termine what accomplishments had been made in efforts to assist the South.One of the outcomes of the conference was a realization that the knowledgeneeded to bring about change was certainly available but that the political will-ingness of the North was noticeably lacking. If their conclusions are correct, andthe record seems to suggest that they are, socioeconomic conditions in theSouth will continue to lag behind the vastly more affluent North.

Suggested Readings: Independent Commission for International Developmental Issues,North-South: A Programme for Survival, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1980; Journal of Developing

Areas (focuses on issues of development in the periphery); United Nations Development Pro-gram, Human Development Report, New York: Oxford University Press, annual.

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Optimum population. Theoretically, the optimum population is the number ofpeople necessary for the full development of a country’s resource base.Achievement of optimum population ensures maximum gross national prod-uct (GNP) and the highest possible standard of living. If the population is ei-ther too high (overpopulation) or too low (underpopulation) the GNP percapita and standard of living will be lower than those achieved with optimumpopulation.

Optimum population varies depending on the quality of the resource baseand the socioeconomic makeup of the population. A number of additionalvariables can also influence the determination of optimum population.American geographer Edward A. Ackerman developed a formula in the1950s that measures a country’s population against an extensive set of eco-nomic and social characteristics. Among them are the amount of resources ina country and a measure of resource quality, level of technology, efficiency ofthe country’s governmental administration, resources acquired through trade,and determination of wastage of resources. Generally, Ackerman’s formuladerives a standard of living for a country that compares population with thenatural-resource base and the technology available to effectively use the re-sources.

Optimum population varies with time and any change in the level of tech-nology. For instance, breakthroughs in agricultural and industrial technologiesresult in greatly increased yields of food crops and a more efficient and produc-tive manufacturing sector. These positive outcomes result in increases in over-all population, expansion of the labor force, generally higher levels ofproductivity, a higher GNP per capita, and an elevated standard of living.

The process can also work in reverse. An aging population, typical of somewestern European countries in recent decades, results in fewer people in theworkforce, a diminishment of productivity, and a lowered standard of living.

Bangladesh has been cited as an example of a country that is overpopulated.It has a population density of nearly 800 per square mile, a meager resourcebase, and a location within a natural hazards region. Its low levels of produc-tivity, high population, and extremely low per capita GNP (less than $300 in2000), mark Bangladesh as one of the poorest countries in the world.

Canada, on the other hand, is an example of a country experiencing under-population. With 27 million people in an area about the size of the contermi-nous United States and a considerable resource base, Canada’s GNP per capita(over $20,000, in U.S. dollars, in 2000) would increase significantly if its totalpopulation were increased, even if it doubled. Canada’s growth prospects areextremely positive; those of Bangladesh are negative.

Suggested Readings: John Bongaarts, “Population Pressure and the Food Supply System inthe Developing World,” Population and Development Review, vol. 22 (1996); Brian Goodall, The

Facts on File Dictionary of Human Geography, New York: Facts on File, 1987.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Several oil-exporting coun-tries in the Middle East, along with Venezuela, formed the Organization of Pe-troleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1960. At that time, crude oil wasselling on the world market for about $2 per barrel, and this group wanted touse its collective efforts to increase the price. OPEC was unsuccessful in its bidto get higher payments for crude oil until 1973. That year, OPEC became a truecartel by controlling the production of oil within its countries and increasingthe price from $3 per barrel to nearly $60 in 1980. Not only was a price in-crease instituted, the Arab members of OPEC boycotted oil shipments to theUnited States for one year because of its support of Israel in the 1973 Yom Kip-pur War. OPEC’s moves beginning in 1973 proved for the first time its power inworld politics.

OPEC’s actions affected every region in the world. In the developed coun-tries, the cost of energy shot upward, greatly increasing the cost of producingall manufactured goods. Shortages of gasoline forced prices upward; gasolinethat cost 29 cents per gallon in 1972 rose to $1.40 in 1980. The developingcountries were negatively impacted as well. These countries relied on low-costenergy to build their new industries and to provide much-needed fertilizers foruse in agriculture.

The economic effects of OPEC’s actions were reduced in the 1980s and1990s. Non-OPEC oil producers (Canada, Mexico, Norway, the United King-dom, Angola, and Colombia) increased their exports to the United States.Also, the United States and other developed countries began concerted effortsto conserve energy through the use of higher-gas-mileage automobiles and theinstallation of energy-efficient heating and cooling systems in homes and officebuildings. All of these changes reduced the amount of oil purchased from

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OPEC suppliers. As a result, oil prices dropped. In addition, the Iran-Iraq Warin the 1980s, coupled with internal disagreements among its member coun-tries, reduced OPEC’s ability to effectively cooperate as a cartel.

Although the oil-price shocks of the 1970s are gone, OPEC is nonetheless aformidable influence on geopolitics. Throughout the era of the cold war, boththe United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) competed for favor amongthe oil-producing countries of the Middle East. In the future, OPEC’s influencewill continue to be significant. The organization has 75 percent of the world’sknown reserves of crude oil, with more than two-thirds of the world total foundin OPEC countries in the Middle East.

OPEC membership in 2000 included Algeria, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar,Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Venezuela.Former member countries include Ecuador and Gabon.

Suggested Readings: British Petroleum Company, The BP Statistical Review of World Energy,

annual; Susan L. Cutter and William H. Renwick, Exploration, Conservation, Preservation: A

Geographical Perspective on Natural Resource Use, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Outsourcing. A company may find it financially advantageous to have partic-ular business functions completed outside the organization. For example, jani-torial work, operation of the dining facility, and computer storage of archivalrecords may be handled by outside firms instead of company personnel. Out-sourcing, as this practice is called, has become a common occurrence in firms ofall sizes.

Outsourcing allows a company to concentrate on its primary business ob-jective. If the company is a manufacturer of automobile tires, for example,management may outsource the human resource function to a firm that spe-cializes in that service. In this case, the outside firm would handle payroll,personnel record keeping, and all other facets of human resources. The com-pany would then be restructured to more closely focus its attention on mak-ing tires.

Another form of outsourcing is seen in the relocation of manufacturing op-erations to other countries. In a move of this kind, companies are taking ad-vantage of lower wage rates, less-expensive land, and other incentives found inthe new location. Outsourcing of this type is associated in particular withtransnational corporations, large firms that are based in developed countriesand have established factories in other countries (see Core-periphery model).The goods produced at these plants are then shipped back to the home countryand marketed there. An example of this category of outsourcing is seen in themaquiladoras, manufacturing plants along Mexico’s northern border. Otherexamples of outsourcing include the manufacture in other countries of com-puter parts, aircraft components, clothing, and athletic shoes for final productassembly or direct sale of the items in the home country. Outsourcing is an in-tegral aspect of the globalization of economic activity and a factor in the newinternational division of labor.

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Suggested Readings: Peter W. Daniels and W. F. Lever, eds., The Global Economy in Transi-

tion, Harlow, U.K.: Longman, 1996; Jeffrey Henderson, The Globalization of High Technology,

New York: Routledge, 1991.

Overpopulation. The basic definition of overpopulation states that a countryor region has too many people and is therefore incapable of achieving or main-taining a suitable standard of living. Overpopulation is a relative notion, and itgenerally refers to the relationship between the number of people and the ca-pability of the environment to support them.

Overpopulation is one of two departures from the ideal status of optimumpopulation, a condition in which the number of people in a country and its re-source base and technology level are in balance, the carrying capacity of theland has not been exceeded, and an adequate standard of living has been es-tablished. The other departure is underpopulation, in which a country or re-gion has a population of insufficient numbers to fully utilize the resource baseat its disposal.

The English economist Thomas Robert Malthus was one of the first schol-ars to draw attention to the problem of overpopulation. Malthus concluded inhis “Essay on the Principle of Populations As It Affects the Further Improve-ment of Society” (1798) that world population was growing faster than thefood supply needed to support it. In this sense, Malthus was sounding an earlywarning of an impending population explosion, an idea that is frequently dis-cussed and debated in the early twenty-first century.

Countering the Malthusian position was one put forth by Karl Marx(1818–83), German political philosopher and revolutionist, who denied thebasic premise of overpopulation. To Marx, the major problem is not one of toomany people but a distribution system that precludes the delivery of neededcommodities to those unable to provide for themselves.

Another school of thought holds that the problem of overpopulation will besolved in time by new developments in technology. Exponents of this ideapoint to the impressive advancements in medical and agricultural technologyin the past and the resulting ability to support greater numbers of people. Suchcountries as Japan provide support for the technology argument. Because of itstechnological superiority and the ability to use that asset to increase its indus-trial productivity, Japan can purchase those resources and commodities it can-not produce or acquire within its own borders (especially some foods and crudeoil) and create an exceptionally high standard of living. Japan’s population atthe beginning of the twenty-first century was 130 million, and if the countrywere not so richly endowed with its positive attributes of productivity, it wouldcertainly be classified as being overpopulated.

Overpopulation is commonly associated with countries in the developingworld. In most of these countries, a large percentage of the people live at ornear subsistence levels. Housing shortages, poor sanitation conditions, too fewjob opportunities, inadequate medical delivery systems, and a high rate of nat-

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ural increase identify countries where the overpopulation label is correctly ap-plied. The most seriously affected region in the world in this regard includesthe countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Development experts consider the task ofensuring socioeconomic improvements in this region to be one of the greatestchallenges of the twenty-first century.

Suggested Readings: “Population,” National Geographic, October 1998; United Nations Pop-ulation Fund, The State of the World Population, New York: United Nations, annual.

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Pacific Rim economic region. Fourteen countries spanning the eastern andwestern coasts of the vast Pacific Ocean basin represent a dynamically growingworld economic region. Members of the Pacific Rim tier of countries are Japan,the Asian Tigers (the economic powers South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, andHong Kong), Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Aus-tralia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.

This expansive region is experiencing rapid economic growth, and everycountry has developed significant worldwide trading connections. An im-portant shift is underway on the global economic scene. Europe was theleading economic center in the nineteenth century during the heyday of theIndustrial Revolution. Leadership passed to North America in the twenti-eth century as the U.S. economy grew rapidly. The twenty-first century maysee the Pacific Rim emerge as the most affluent economic region in theworld.

Japan was the first Asian country to gear its economy for world trade. Fol-lowing the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan began to industrialize and brokeout of its centuries-long isolation. The country’s economy grew rapidly, andJapan exerted its influence throughout East and Southeast Asia. The annexa-tion of Korea and the occupation of Taiwan and other areas in coastal Chinaare examples of Japan’s expansionist efforts in the early twentieth century. Fol-lowing World War II, Japan’s industrial base was severely shattered, but withthe assistance of the United States, Japan quickly rebuilt its industrial structureand in a few decades became one of the leading economic powers in the world.By the end of the 1980s, Japan’s gross national product was second in theworld, behind that of the United States.

Japan’s success was followed by the dynamic rise of the Asian Tigers (seeNew industrial countries), all of which prospered when Europe and NorthAmerica were economically damaged by the oil price increases of the 1970s(see Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). The remaining coun-tries in the Pacific Rim are recent contributors to regional growth. China, withits billion-plus population, has broken out of the isolation endured under thefirst five decades of communist rule and is developing a formidable world tradenetwork. Australia and New Zealand, members of the developed world, aremajor suppliers of minerals, wood, and agricultural products, with primary mar-kets in Japan and other Pacific Rim countries.

The United States and Canada are the only Pacific Rim countries in theWestern Hemisphere. Now that Mexico is a member of the North AmericanFree Trade Agreement, it may take a place as well within the Pacific Rimgrouping. The United States and Canada have more trade with other PacificRim countries than with western Europe. By 2000, total U.S. and Canadianimports and exports with Asian countries in the region were 50 percent higherthan those with their European trading partners. In that same year, the Asiancountries in the Pacific Rim accounted for over 30 percent of world exports, anincrease from 11 percent only 20 years earlier.

Trade patterns within the Pacific Rim countries are extensive. The UnitedStates and Canada are major importers of manufactured items from the othermembers. In turn, the United States and Canada supply other member coun-tries with agricultural goods, timber, various industrial materials, and a greatdeal of capital and technology. Several Pacific Rim countries also host transna-tional corporations based in the United States.

Continued economic growth of the Pacific Rim seems assured. Most of theemerging countries in Southeast Asia have lowered their population growthrates and are on their way to achieving economic success.

Suggested Readings: Mark Borthwick, Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia,

2nd ed., Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1992; Godfrey Linge, China’s New Spatial Economy:

Heading Toward 2020, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1997; Jonathan Riss, Southeast Asia:

The Human Landscape of Modernization and Development, New York: Routledge, 1997.

Paddy rice farming. Rice cultivation in a small field, or paddy, is the dominantform of subsistence agriculture in many regions of Asia. The name paddycomes from the Malay language and means “wet rice.” Over time, paddy hasbeen used in Western literature to refer generally to wet-rice cultivation in allareas. Paddy rice farming is labor intensive, time consuming, and complex. Thegrowing process begins by clearing the field to remove any plant debris fromthe previous crop, plowing the area and smoothing the surface, and adding theright amount of fertilizer. Water is then added to a depth of about 12 inches.Rice seedlings are then transplanted to the paddy from a seedbed, where theywere sown earlier. Proper water level is maintained throughout the growing pe-riod. Weeding is accomplished when necessary and repairs made to any breaks

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in enclosing dikes that may be leaking. At a particular point in the process, thewater is drained away and the final growth stage begins. The plants are nowable to benefit from maximum sunlight important for grain maturation in thefinal growth period. The final step in the process involves cutting the matureplants and removing the rice grains from the chaff.

In some regions of India, Bangladesh, most of Southeast Asia, southernChina, and southwestern Japan, the temperature and moisture regimes allowfor double-cropping of paddy rice. In these regions, the sequence of steps be-gins in the early spring and the first harvest occurs in July. The fields are thencleared and prepared for the second planting in August and an eventual har-vest in November.

Paddy rice farming requires flat land, an environmental feature that is at apremium in most Asian countries. For this reason, it is necessary to use hillslopes that have been modified to create narrow and flat expanses suitable forpaddy fields. Terracing, as this adaptation is called, is commonly seen through-out the paddy rice growing regions in Asia, and its presence indicates both ashortage of flat land and a population base large enough to require expansion ofthe agricultural sector.

Rice is the primary grain in many parts of Asia, and this single food productmay represent as much as 60–70 percent of an individual’s daily caloric intake.Well over half of all the rice in the world is grown is Asia, and most of the cropis consumed within that region.

Suggested Readings: John Rutherford, Rice Dominant Land Settlement in Japan, Sydney, Aus-tralia: Department of Geography, University of Sydney, 1984; R. Suppiah, “Four Types of Rela-tionships Between Rainfall and Paddy Production in Sri Lanca,” Geojournal, vol. 10 (1985).

Pastoralism. The grazing of sheep and cattle on natural grasslands is referred toas pastoralism. This practice is found primarily in the semiarid midlatitude re-gions in North and South America, Africa, and Asia. An exception to thesemiarid setting is the raising of sheep in the humid grassland of New Zealand.Pastoralism is an example of extensive agriculture and it can be a large-scalecommercial venture (see Agribusiness) or a form of subsistence agriculture.

Pastoralism is normally practiced on land that is not ideally suited for agri-culture and is generally found in sparsely populated areas that are steep and dry.Despite the fact that pastoralism is found in relatively remote areas, its com-mercial applications are quite lucrative. Livestock ranching in the Argentinepampas, the American West, and northern Australia is big business, and beefproduced in those regions is marketed throughout the world. The same is trueof commercial sheep farming in New Zealand, central Australia, and the Ar-gentine region of Patagonia. Livestock raising was also practiced for a few yearsin the Amazon region of South America, where large expanses of tropical rainforest had been cleared and grasses planted. The practice began in earnest inthe 1980s, and although it continues, it has been greatly diminished in favor ofrain forest retention. Pastoralism in the western United States has been re-

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placed to a great extent by the installation of feedlots that are located nearlarge metropolitan centers and on major surface transportation lines.

Another form of pastoralism is nomadic herding, a subsistence land use alsofound in the semiarid climatic regions, along the fringes of the Arctic Ocean inEurasia, and on the northern Canadian mainland. Pastoralism was included invon Thunen’s land use model, developed in the early 1800s by German econ-omist Johann Heinrich von Thunen.

Suggested Readings: Jonathan B. Bascom, “Border Pastoralism in Eastern Sudan,” Geographi-

cal Review, vol. 80 (1990); John G. Galaty and Douglas L. Johnson, The World of Pastoralism:

Herding Systems in Comparative Perspective, New York: Guilford Press, 1990.

Pattern. Geography is a discipline that analyzes spatial interaction and thearrangement of objects in their spatial settings. The objects of study (for exam-ple, cities, farms, rock outcroppings, people on a beach, tanning parlors, or in-dustrial sites) can be located and mapped. The resulting map shows a pattern ofsymbols representing the location of the objects and their arrangement.

Pattern is an important aspect of geographical analysis. For example, a mapof the locations of automobile thefts in a city would show a pattern that couldbe used to assign more police surveillance in the affected neighborhoods. Eco-nomic development planners look at a number of map patterns (e.g., popula-tion density, access routes, residential areas) to help in determining the bestlocation for a new retail center.

The township and range survey of 1789 created a rectilinear land patternthat is easily recognizable from the air and is seen on county maps of the mid-western and western United States. The east–west and north–south alignmentof streets in areas surveyed under this system exhibits a familiar pattern intowns and cities throughout this region.

Pattern analysis can lead to the determination of conclusions about the waya particular arrangement of objects came about. For example, a linear series ofpoints representing retail business establishments would be found along atransportation corridor that provides access to the places for potential cus-tomers. This is a familiar pattern throughout the world. A tight cluster ofpoints on a map could represent customers at an ice cream stand on a hot sum-mer day or industrial plants located close to each other for mutual economicadvantage (see Agglomeration).

Work on pattern analysis has also been extended to determine a pattern’sstructure. That is, a pattern may be totally uniform, such as the regular spacingof fruit trees in an orchard or rows of corn on a flat agricultural field. Or, thearrangement may be completely random, with no observable order. “Uniform”and “random” represent the two extremes in a continuum of possible patternstructures. In the early 1950s, botanists interested in the arrangement of treesin forested areas wanted a precise measure of the tree pattern. The quantitativetechnique they developed is called “nearest-neighbor analysis,” a numeric pro-cedure that yields a single number within a set range across the continuum

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from random to uniform. The nearest-neighbor formula can be used to deter-mine the structure of any pattern in terms of its uniformity or randomness.

Pattern is of great importance in cartography. Maps are a visual communica-tion system, and the choice of symbol and graphic presentation is of funda-mental importance in this process. Aspects of pattern are considered in theactual mapmaking process and in the interpretation of maps.

Suggested Readings: John Campbell, Map Use and Analysis, 3rd ed., Dubuque, Iowa:WCB/McGraw-Hill, 1998; Phillip C. Muehrcke and Julianna O. Muehrcke, Map Use: Reading,

Analysis, Interpretation, Madison, Wis.: JP Publications, 1992.

Periodic market. Market centers have been important gathering places for per-sonal interaction and the exchange of goods for centuries. In towns and cities,permanent market activities are found in abundance. In rural areas with smallvillages and low population densities, the demand for goods is present althoughthe cumulative purchasing power may be too low to justify a permanent retailestablishment. In these regions the periodic market is found. Periodic marketsare mobile centers of activity. Groups of vendors travel from one village to an-other over a set period of time, offer their goods for sale for a day, and thenmove on to the next place.

Periodic markets are found throughout the developing world in areas of lowpopulation density. It is not uncommon for vendors in their weekly circuits totravel 50 miles or more on foot carrying heavy loads of merchandise. In WestAfrica, settlements have existed for thousands of years on the boundary of for-est and grassland and along major trade routes. These small settlements becameperiodic market sites for the sale or exchange of goods and services. A greatdeal of bartering may go on between buyer and seller in these transactions aseach one ties to gain the greatest advantage.

Periodic market activity has been studied within the context of Christaller’scentral place theory, developed by twentieth-century German geographerWalter Christaller. When placed within this functional model of urban places,periodic marketing can be graphically portrayed at multiple hierarchical levels.

Suggested Readings: Paul Cloke, Rural Geography, Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1997;Arthur Morris, Geography and Development, London: University College London Press, 1998.


Physiological density. The number of people per unit area of cultivable orarable land is called its physiological density. The resulting number is invari-ably much higher than the overall population density of a country. Physiolog-ical density is an important measure because it relates population to theamount of land that can be used for agriculture. For example, the U.S. overallpopulation density is just over 70 per square mile. Its physiological density isabout 340 per square mile. Even though the density is higher when measuredagainst arable land, the United States is a world leader in agricultural yield and


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variety of products. The wheat region of the United States and Canada pro-vides an abundance of grain in any given year, enough to satisfy domesticneeds, with millions of metric tons available for sale on the world market.

A much different picture is seen in Japan, a country about the size of Mon-tana with a population of over 130 million. Japan’s overall population densityis 860 per square mile, but its physiological density is nearly 7,000 per squaremile. This high figure results from Japan’s relatively small size and the fact thatonly 16 percent of its land area is suitable for agriculture. Not only is there apaucity of flat land, but the land is slowly being taken over by the expansion ofmetropolitan areas.

There are four major plains areas in Japan, and the remainder of the four-island nation is mountainous. Clearly, Japan is not self-sufficient in food pro-duction, despite its leadership in developing innovative techniques inintensive agriculture. Japan is one of the leading economic countries in theworld, and it has attained a position of affluence that allows for the purchaseof necessary food items not produced on its own land.

China provides another interesting example. With a physiological density of2,900 per square mile, about 10 times its overall population density, Chinaclaims to have achieved self-sufficiency in agricultural output. Very little dataare available outside China, however, and it is difficult to verify this claim or todetermine individual daily protein and caloric intake.

Physiological density does not provide insights into the agricultural produc-tion on arable land within individual countries. Actual outputs vary consider-ably, depending on the level of agricultural technology available within thecountry, the importance placed on agriculture, and the degree of accessibilityto areas of arable land within the country. For example, Nigeria was not able touse its productive northern agricultural region until connecting transportationlines were installed.

Australia’s population density is lower than 10 per square mile, and its phys-iological density is just over 90 per square mile. The difference in the figuresshows that the amount of arable land in Australia is very limited. Yet, thecountry has achieved agricultural self-sufficiency because of its low total popu-lation and advanced agricultural system. Australia is an important exporter ofwheat and meat products.

Suggested Readings: John Bongaarts, “Can the Growing Human Population Feed Itself?” Sci-

entific American, vol. 270 (1944); Helen Ginn Daughert and Kenneth C. W. Kammeyer, An In-

troduction to Population, 2nd ed., New York: Guilford Press, 1995.

Place. The concept of place is basic to geographic thinking and practice. Ge-ography has been characterized as a spatial discipline, and places within thespatial context are objects of interest to analysts. Cities, agricultural fields,countries, pizza parlors, and gold mines are all examples of places that geogra-phers may choose to study. To the human geographer, a place may be charac-terized as an environment in which people live and work. It is important to

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note that a place has both cultural and physical components, and both areneeded to fully understand and appreciate the place.

Places may be studied to reveal their similarities: Seattle and Dallas are bothcities, but it is also true that these two cities, when closely observed, reveal sig-nificant differences in both their cultural components and physical settings.Recent geographical research suggests that places are beginning to lose theirdistinctiveness in some ways. The effects of modern culture, it is suggested, arecreating a kind of spatial standardization that works to reduce the uniquenessof individual places. This phenomenon has been identified as a condition of“placelessness,” in which places are becoming more like each other. Placeless-ness, the researchers suggest, is furthered by the presence of common featuresfound in all places (franchise restaurants, the familiar string of billboards alonghighways, and national chain stores), the same music and entertainmentforms, and rapid media communications through television, the Internet, andsatellite transmissions.

Other researchers contend that people in the United States may be losingtheir sense of place over time. The close association with the physical and cul-tural attributes of the place in which they live seems to have diminished (seeenvironmental perception). American naturalist Barry Lopez suggests thatAmericans are less aware of their immediate surroundings and are not asclosely associated with their immediate surroundings as those of earlier genera-tions.

The concept of place is a central theme in humanistic geography. Yi-FuTuan, a prominent American geographer, originally from China, and one ofthe principal architects of humanistic geography, considered place to representa center of felt value. Viewed in this perspective, place has a strong emotionalconnotation, an orientation considerably distant from that of the more scien-tific and analytic geographer. Tuan used the term topophilia, love of place,which is a compelling reference to the affective domain.

Suggested Readings: Douglas K. Fleming and Richard Roth, “Place in Advertising,” Geo-

graphical Review, vol. 81 (1991); Richard P. Horwitz, The Strip: An American Place, Lincoln: Uni-versity of Nebraska Press, 1985; Leo Zinn, Place Images in Media: Portrayal, Experience, and

Meaning, Savage, Md.: Roman & Littlefield, 1990.

Plantation agriculture. During the era of colonialism in the nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries, the Europeans introduced large-scale agricultural op-erations in their colonies. These agricultural estates, or plantations, specializedin the production of one or two export crops that were in high demand in theEuropean countries. Among the crops grown were sugarcane, tea, coffee,cocoa, bananas, pineapples, palms, and cotton. All of these crops continue tobe grown in regions of tropical and subtropical climates.

Cotton was an important export crop during the era of slavery in the UnitedStates. The warm, moist climate of the South is ideal for cotton growing. BlackAfricans, who were brought to the United States against their will and put to


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work in the fields, provided labor for the cotton plantations. The plantationwas home to the owners, managers, and their African slaves.

Cotton was grown extensively in the South, and much of the crop was ex-ported to England. The invention of the cotton gin by American inventor EliWhitney in 1793, one of hundreds of labor-saving devices developed duringthe Industrial Revolution, resulted in great increases in cotton production.When slavery was abolished in 1862, during the American Civil War, many ofthe plantations were broken up into smaller land holdings.

Plantations have continued to operate in many parts of the world. Thisform of agricultural land use is ideal for the cultivation of tree crops that takea number of years from the time of planting to produce their first crop. Mod-ern plantations are a form of agribusiness with high capital inputs, the use ofadvanced agricultural technology, and sophisticated marketing techniques.The labor-intensive nature of the operation, however, has not changed. Manyworkers are needed in the fields, especially during the time of harvest. Becauseplantations are usually located in sparsely populated regions, workers in manycases must be brought to the sites.

Plantations are found primarily in the low-latitude regions of Latin America,Africa, and Asia. A location either on the coast or with good access to it isneeded in order to expedite shipment of the product.

Suggested Readings: Percy P. Courtenay, Plantation Agriculture, 2nd ed., London: Bell &Hyman, 1980; Edgar Graham and Ingrid Floering, The Modern Plantations in the Third World,

New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984.

Political geography. Geographers have long been interested in the political or-ganization of space and the ways in which areas, large and small, have beenmodified through political action. Political geography is the oldest branch ofthe discipline. Evidence is abundant of decision making in past eras that hasliterally changed the map of the world. Wars, conquests, negotiations overboundaries, and territorial disputes are all part of human history, and they con-tinue to command the attention of today’s leaders. The breakup of Yugoslaviain the early 1990s and its reorganization into smaller successor countries is oneexample of political realignments in recent years. The continual turmoil in theMiddle East and the demands made of Israel to give up land it conquered inpast conflicts is another.

Political geography was originally concerned with the origins of sovereignstates, the groupings of states into alliances, questions about frontiers andboundaries, the relations of states both friendly and adversarial, and the influ-ence of state shape on its ability to maintain its sovereignty. Political geogra-phers also study the operations of multinational organizations. During the coldwar, political geographers closely watched and reported on the standoff be-tween the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its adversary the WarsawPact (see Buffer state and buffer zone).

Political geography was once greeted with some degree of disdain in the aca-demic community. Before World War II, Nazi Germany used the work of geog-

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rapher Karl Haushofer to justify its invasion of other European countries. For anumber of years following World War II, political geography was not as popularas other branches of the discipline because of the manner in which Haushofer’sbrand of geopolitics was used to justify German expansionism.

Electoral geography is a branch of political geography dealing with the im-pact of the political process on the spatial system. For example, states that losepopulation between congressional elections may also lose seats in the House ofRepresentatives. Conversely, states that gain in population may acquire addi-tional membership. Gains or losses of representatives require the redistrictingand remapping of the state to reflect the changes. On occasion, the redrawingof congressional districts has created some very unusual district shapes (seeElectoral geography).

A number of ongoing boundary and territorial disputes have intrigued polit-ical geographers in recent years. One centers on the dispute between Japan andRussia over ownership of the four islands lying north of Hokkaido, Japan. TheSoviets occupied the islands at the end of World War II and have held themsince, claiming ownership as spoils of war. The Japanese, citing nineteenth-century treaties with the Russians, contend that the islands must be returned tothem. There is also the ongoing debate about whether there are two Koreas orone. In the view of most countries in the world, the Republic of Korea (SouthKorea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) are le-gitimate sovereign states. China, on the other hand, recognizes only oneKorea. Maps published in China do not show a boundary line separating thetwo countries.

Halford J. Mackinder (1861–1947), the prominent British geographer, pro-posed one of political geography’s most famous theories. Mackinder put for-ward his heartland theory in his book Demographic Ideas and Reality (1919). Itbecame one of the most influential summaries of the global geopolitical situa-tion of that era.

Suggested Readings: Nurit Kliot and Stanley Waterman, The Political Geography of Conflict

and Peace, London: Belhaven Press, 1991; Thomas F. Poulsen, Nations and States: A Geographical

Background to World Affairs, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995.

Pollution. When more foreign material accumulates in a natural system thancan be absorbed and reduced, the result is pollution. A classic case of pollutionoccurred in March 1988, when the oil supertanker the Exxon Valdez ranaground on an island off the coast of Alaska and discharged 11 million gallonsof crude oil into the water. The oil gradually drifted onshore, causing extensivedamage to vegetation and animal life. Billions of dollars were spent over manyyears in efforts to alleviate the destruction.

There are a number of forms of pollution, and the task of eradicating the as-sociated problems is becoming more difficult every year. Air, water, and landsurfaces worldwide are the repositories of excess waste materials that becomepollution. Atmospheric pollution occurs in the form of acid rain, smog accu-mulations in metropolitan areas, and the introduction of greenhouse gases,

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which have been blamed for the onset of global warming (see Greenhouse ef-fect). In the United States, the burning of coal in power plants in the Midwestcauses acid rain. The particulate matter in the smoke is carried aloft by prevail-ing winds. The suspended solid material containing oxides of nitrogen and sul-fur eventually combines with water vapor to form acidic compounds. The acidsare contained in the precipitation that falls on upstate New York, portions ofNew England, and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Acid rain damagesforests, lakes, and agricultural land. A number of lakes in northern New Yorkhave been rendered lifeless from acid rain deposits. Eastern Germany and theCzech Republic are greatly affected by acid rain originating in the highly con-centrated industrial centers to the west.

Air pollution has also been blamed for global warming, the gradual increasein the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. Automobile exhaustfumes and industrial smoke containing carbon dioxide and other greenhousegases accumulate in the atmosphere and prevent the natural dissipation ofheat into space. The Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997 by most of the world’scountries, was the culmination of a decades-long program to legislate reduc-tions in the production of greenhouse gases and reverse global warming. Al-though then–Vice President Al Gore signed for the United States, theproposal was not sent to the Senate for ratification. When George W. Bushbecame president, he proposed that large companies independently curtailpolluting.

Smog in Los Angeles, Mexico City, and other major metropolitan centers isanother form of air pollution. “Smog” is the name given to the accumulation ofnoxious gases and particulate matter in the air above a city. In Los Angeles, forexample, the pollutants are generated from automobile exhausts and industrialsmoke, which are held in place by the combination of overriding high-pressureair and a mountain barrier to the east.

The introduction of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere is re-sponsible for breaking down the earth’s protective ozone layer. CFCs comefrom human-made gases such as freon, a substance used in refrigerators, freez-ers, and air-conditioning systems. The use of freon has been discontinued inthe developed countries, and by 2010 the developing countries will also dis-continue its use.

Lakes, rivers, and coastal waters have experienced pollution. By the 1960s,Lake Erie was severely polluted. Both the United States and Canada began suc-cessful cleanup campaigns, which lasted throughout the 1980s and 1990s.However, through the concerted efforts of governmental agencies, local indus-tries, and environmental organizations, Lake Erie made a remarkable come-back, and its environmental condition is greatly improved. The Rio Grande inthe vicinity of the Mexican maquiladoras, manufacturing plants along the bor-der with the United States, was being polluted with industrial wastes. Bothcountries have vowed to reverse the process and clean up this important bodyof water.

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The outlook for the Aral Sea in Russia and Kazakhstan, however, is notpromising. Much of the water from the two rivers that replenish the Aral Seawas diverted for irrigation agriculture beginning in the 1970s. As a result ofthese diversions, the Aral Sea gradually began to disappear. Shorelines recededfrom the edges of fishing villages, and boats were stranded on land miles fromthe sea. All fish and plant life in the sea have long since died. Once the waterdisappeared and the seabed dried, fine particulate matter consisting of fertiliz-ers and pesticides was picked up by the wind and broadcast over thousands ofsquare miles of land. The result was a great increase in human and animal ill-nesses caused by toxic materials. The loss of the Aral Sea is an environmentaltragedy of enormous proportions.

Lake Baikal in Siberia, the world’s largest freshwater lake in volume, is alsothe site of serious pollution. For years, raw sewage and industrial wastes havebeen deposited in Lake Baikal. Because of its size, it was believed that the lakewould always be able to break down the waste material and eliminate its toxic-ity. In time, however, the amount of wastes deposited in the lake increased to apoint that exceeded the lake’s tolerance levels. Lake Baikal is now experienc-ing high accumulations of pollutants.

Suggested Readings: Ross Gelbspan, “A Modest Proposal to Stop Global Warming,” Sierra,

May–June 2001; Andrew Goudie and Heather Viles, The Earth Transformed: An Introduction to

the Human Impact on the Environment, Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1997; “Restoring Lifeto the ‘Dead Zone’: How a Sound Farm Policy Could Save Our Oceans,” Environmental Defense

Newsletter, May 2000.

Population density. The relating of population totals to the area occupied de-fines the concept of population density. For example, Iceland occupies a landarea of 39,790 square miles, and its total population in 2000 was approximately300,000. Therefore, Iceland’s population density is 7.5 per square mile. Consid-ered alone, population density is not a very useful measure. Its value, however,is found in comparisons with other country values. For example, Pakistan has307,376 square miles of territory and a population of 151 million. Its popula-tion density is 489 per square mile, over 65 times that of Iceland. Comparingthe two population densities shows that, despite its larger territorial size, Pak-istan is an overcrowded country. However, the population density comparisonalone does not show whether either country has achieved optimum popula-tion, nor does it show whether Iceland is underpopulated or Pakistan is over-populated. Without more information, one cannot tell whether either countryhas reached or surpassed its carrying capacity.

One might conclude, then, that population density is a measure of limitedvalue and that its usefulness is increased when it is used to compare countries.Comparisons within a country make the measure even more useful. The popu-lation density of the United States is about 76 per square mile. The state ofMinnesota has 4.4 million people in an area of 84,000 square miles. Min-nesota’s population density is 52 per square mile, below the country’s average.A measure of the population density of the Twin Cities metropolitan area—

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Minnesota’s largest urban concentration, with 2.4 million people on 3,700square miles of land—shows that it is 596 per square mile. This is a significantpopulation concentration; half of Minnesota’s population lives in this metro-politan area.

The country of Egypt provides a particularly interesting example. Egypt islocated in the northern Sahara Desert, a vast desert region. Egypt’s land area is386,660 square miles, about one-tenth the size of the United States and 4.5times as large as the area of Minnesota. Its population density is 177 per squaremile. Again, overall population density values can be deceiving. In the case ofEgypt this is especially true. First, the city of Cairo has over 13 percent of thecountry’s population on a limited land area near the delta of the Nile River.The most startling fact, however, is that 98 percent of Egypt’s population liveson only 3 percent of its land area. The location of this extraordinary concen-tration is the region composed of two narrow bands of land hugging both sidesof the Nile River. There, the population density exceeds 8,000 per square mile.The Nile River is the lifeblood of the country, and it has supported civilizationsfrom the time of the ancient pharaohs up to the present.

Suggested Readings: David A. Plane and Peter A. Rogerson, The Geographical Analysis of

Population, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994; World Resources Institute, “Population andHuman Development,” in World Resources 1996–97, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Population distribution. World population distribution is uneven. Some re-gions contain heavy concentrations of people, and others have a populationdensity of less than one person per square mile. A few places in the world haveno permanent settlements. Among them are Antarctica, the ice-capped inte-rior of Greenland, and most of the Canadian archipelago.

A glance at a map of world population distribution reveals three major con-centrations, a number of smaller ones, and extensive areas of very low popula-tions. The single largest concentration of people is found in East Asia, which iscomposed of China, North and South Korea, and Japan. More than 1.5 billionpeople live in this region. This figure represents 25 percent of the total worldpopulation, which was 6.1 billion in 2000. China alone had 1.25 billion peoplein that year, the first country to pass the billion-persons mark. North andSouth Korea and Japan collectively have the remaining 250 million people.China’s population is concentrated in the eastern one-third of the countryalong major rivers and near the seacoast. The largest concentration of peoplein China is found along the lower course of the Hwang He, the Yellow River,on the North China Plain. Twenty-five percent of China’s population, or morethan 310 million people, live in this highly productive agricultural region.China’s 1.25 billion people represent 20 percent of total world population.Thus, one out of 5 people in the world live in China, and one of every 20 peo-ple in the world live in the region of the North China Plain. Population distri-butions in the two Koreas and Japan are primarily on plains near the coastlinesand along river valleys. Expanses of flat land are rare in both of these moun-tainous countries. Consequently, population densities are decidedly high.


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The second most populated region is South Asia, with 1.4 billion people.India is the most populated country in this region, followed by Pakistan andBangladesh, both of which were part of India until the late 1940s. India’s rateof natural increase is much higher than that of China, and it is estimated thatIndia will surpass China in total population by 2030. The combined total pop-ulation of East Asia and South Asia was 2.9 billion in 2000, nearly half thepopulation of the world.

The third largest concentration is the European littoral (coastal regions), ex-tending from the Atlantic coastline east to the Ural Mountains in Russia.Within this region were 750 million people in 2000, representing 12 percent oftotal world population.

The three major concentrations of population, in East Asia, South Asia, andEurope, account for roughly 60 percent of all people in the world. There arelesser concentrations in North America (300 million), Southeast Asia (500million), Africa (743 million), and there are a number of smaller distributionsin Latin America.

Vast areas of very low population exist in a number of world regions. In theNorthern Hemisphere, Arctic North America, northern Siberia, and the Sa-hara Desert in Africa have very low numbers of people. The same is true ofseveral regions in the Southern Hemisphere, including the Amazon RiverBasin, the desert areas of South America, the interior of Australia, andAntarctica.

Suggested Readings: Alene Gelbard et al., “World Population beyond Six Billion,” Population

Bulletin, vol. 54 (1999); Ma Jisen, “1.2 Billion: Retrospect and Prospect of Population in China,”

International Social Science Journal, vol. 48 (1996).

Population explosion. World population has grown dramatically in the lastthree centuries. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century, world population was estimated to be about 700 million. Injust 250 years, the total had surpassed 6 billion. The term population explosion

refers to the recent period of exponential population growth, a sustained andaccelerating increase that is unprecedented in human history.

The population explosion got its start when significant declines occurred incrude death rates. The lowering of death rates is attributed in part to improve-ments in medical delivery systems, improved sanitary conditions, and higheryields in agriculture. As death rates dropped, crude birthrates remained high,resulting in higher rates of natural increase. The combination of these demo-graphic factors drove total populations steadily upward (see Demographic tran-

sition).The year 1820 was a watershed year in human history. That year, world pop-

ulation reached one billion. It had taken all of human history to achieve thattotal. By 1930, world population had doubled to two billion. The next dou-bling took only 45 years, and by 1970 the population of the world had reachedfour billion. Two billion more people were added by 2000, and estimates of fu-


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ture growth suggest that world population will reach nine billion by 2050 (seePopulation projection).

The population explosion is global, but immediate impacts are primarily re-gional. Countries in the developed world have completed the demographictransition and are experiencing low rates of increase. In fact, some countries inwestern Europe have begun to see decline in population. The developing worldis another picture. Birthrates remain higher than death rates in these countries,and total population continues to grow. Although some countries in Asia havemade great strides toward lowering population growth rates, most of the devel-oping world has yet to fully accept and implement fertility controls. Overpop-ulation in particular regions of the developing world has dramatically slowedsocioeconomic development.

Suggested Readings: Lester R. Brown et al., Beyond Malthus: Nineteen Dimensions of the Popu-

lation Challenge, New York: W. W. Norton, 1999; Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, The Population

Explosion, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990; Jennifer D. Mitchell, “Before the Next Dou-bling,” World Watch, January–February, 1998.

Population geography. Population geography is concerned with spatial varia-tion in the composition, distribution, migration, and growth of human groups.In addition, the population geographer studies changes in the characteristics ofa population. For example, studies of crude birthrate and crude death rate andthe manner in which they change over time yield valuable information about acountry (see Demographic transition).

The work of the population geographer overlaps with that of the demogra-pher. Both have conceptual concerns with birth and death rates, fertility rates,and population projection. However, the demographer does not as a rule con-sider migration, nor is the spatial variation theme taken into consideration.

Population geographers use two additional techniques to study populationcomposition. One of these is the diagram of age and gender structure, the so-called population pyramid, a graphic that illustrates the percentages of malesand females in the population by age group. The second is a simple expressioncalled the population equation, which identifies the factors of change in a pop-ulation:

P(f) = P(n) � (B – D) � (I – E)

Where P(f) is the population at some future time, P(n) is the population at thestart of the measuring period, B – D is births minus deaths, and I – E is net mi-gration (immigrants minus emigrants). This expression works for any region inthe world, large and small, and over any time period for which data are avail-able. Change in overall world population, however, requires information onlyon birth- and death rates of the current population.

Concepts in population geography are important components in economicgeography, social geography, urban geography, historical geography, and, of


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course, human geography. This is so because all of these subdisciplines dealwith human populations. The historical growth of population, globally and re-gionally, is an area of importance to the population geographer. Concern aboutpopulation growth occurring since the time of the Industrial Revolution is ofparticular significance because it is in this period that the population explosionbegan. Overpopulation found in the developing world is of primary interest topopulation geographers and other scholars concerned about the socioeconomicdevelopment in this region.

Migration is another area of importance to the population geographer.Movements of people from region to region have occurred throughout history,and the study of this phenomenon exemplifies the dynamic nature of geogra-phy. Population geographers study the migration of diseases as well. In recentyears, population geographers and epidemiologists have closely followed themigration of HIV/AIDS.

Suggested Readings: Gary L. Peters and Robert P. Larkin, Population Geography: Problems,

Concepts, and Prospects, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1993; Ian R. H. Rockett, “Populationand Health: An Introduction to Epidemiology,” Population Bulletin, vol. 54 (1999).

Population growth. The growth of world population from prehistoric times tothe present is an important aspect of population geography. Archaeologicaland historical findings point to three important technological breakthroughsthat had monumental influences on population growth. The first breakthroughin the distant past was the advent of toolmaking. With simple but effectivehand tools, humans were able to manage their environment more effectively.Tools allowed them to build more-protective shelters, gather plant foodsquicker, and more effectively acquire wild game. Life was precarious in theseearly times. Population growth rates were very slow, and in some periods deathrates exceeded birthrates, resulting in population declines.

The second breakthrough occurred about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, withthe advent of agriculture. Human groups throughout the prehistoric periodhad operated as hunters and gatherers, continually on the move in search ofedible grains and other plant foods and wild game. When agriculture was suc-cessfully established, it was no longer necessary to be continuously on themove to find food, and human groups were able to establish permanent settle-ments. Cities began to develop between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago as an out-come of the Agricultural Revolution, and populations began to grow morerapidly.

The third breakthrough was the Industrial Revolution, beginning in thelate eighteenth century, a period of great advances in manufacturing andoverall productivity. The Industrial Revolution impacted every aspect ofWestern society. The population explosion, a great surge in the rate of natu-ral increase, accompanied and to a great extent was fostered by the IndustrialRevolution. By 1820, world population is estimated to have reached one bil-lion.

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World population continued a steady upward climb throughout the remain-der of the nineteenth century and the entire twentieth century. In 2000, worldpopulation had exceeded six billion, and population projections estimate thenumber of people in the world will reach nine billion by 2050.

The high point in population growth rate in the United States was reachedin the early 1960s, just as the post–World War II baby boom was nearing itsend. At that time, the annual population increase in the United States was 2.1percent. Since that time, the growth rate has declined to 0.6 percent, in 2000.This rate is less than half the world rate of 1.4 percent. Although neither ofthese growth rates appear to be exceptionally high, they confirm that popula-tion growth is continuing. For the United States, the 0.6 percent increase rep-resents an additional 1.6 million people annually. Growth of this magnitude inthe United States does not present a socioeconomic problem. However, worldpopulation, just over 6 billion in 2000, grew by an astounding 84 million, witha growth rate of 1.4 percent. Most of the increases were in the developingworld, in countries already hard pressed to achieve positive levels of socioeco-nomic advancement. An increase of 84 million is significant. It is comparableto adding another country as large as Germany in only one year. Annual in-creases of this magnitude are responsible for the continued interest in the pre-dictions of English economist Thomas Robert Malthus (1760–1834) and theongoing concern about the population explosion.

Suggested Readings: Nathan Kayfitz and Wilhelm Flinger, World Population Growth and

Aging: Demographic Trends in the Late 20th Century, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991;Population Reference Bureau, “World Population Data Sheet,” annual.

Population projection. The United Nations, the U.S. Census Bureau, andmany other organizations are interested in determining best estimates for re-gional and global future population growth trends. Population projections areregularly completed and updated for every geographical area. Projections arecategorized in terms of the number of years involved: short-term projectionsare normally for time periods of less than 15 years, medium-term for 15 to 50years, and long-term for more than 50 years. The longer the term, the less ac-curate the projection. This is understandable: the higher the number of yearsinvolved, the greater is the probability for unpredictable events to occur, suchas wars, famines, periods of unexpectedly high economic growth, and a myriadof other outcomes that could invalidate a projection.

The preparation of population projections for any country or region dependson three principal variables: fertility rates, mortality, and migration. The basicequation derived from these variables is:

Projected population = (births – immigrants) – (deaths � emigrants)over the period of the projection.

The same basic formulation can be used to project the change in population ofan age cohort. For example, a U.S. Census Bureau study used this procedure to


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predict changes in the number of womenin the 15–19 age group from 2000 to2005. The projection, noted in O’Neilland Balk (see Suggested Readings forthis entry), concluded that this groupwould increase from 9,672,000 women in2000 to 9,902,000 in 2005. The cohortwould then be a member of the 20–24age group (see Population pyramid).This projection was based on a net gainof 345,000 women from migration and aloss of 115,000 from death. Similar co-hort projections can be made for anyother age groups of either men orwomen.

The United Nations has producedworld population projections to the year2100. Long-term projections such asthese are, of course, the least reliable. Forthis reason the United Nations producedat least three growth scenarios in its pro-jections: low, medium, and high. Allthree scenarios begin with the 2000world population of just over six billion.The low scenario predicts that 7.5 billionpeople will be on the earth in 2050 andthen a decline will occur until 2100,when world population will be 5.1 billion. The medium scenario, the one thatdemographers believe to be most accurate, predicts 9.0 billion people in 2050and 9.5 billion in 2100. Finally, the high scenario, clearly the least desirable,has 11 billion in 2050 and a further increase to 16 billion in 2100.

Each of these scenarios assumes a different total fertility rate for the 50-yearperiod from 2050 to 2100. The low scenario fertility rate is 1.56, the medium is2.03, and the high is 2.51. In 2000, the total fertility rate for the world was 2.9.All three growth scenarios assume a gradual drop in total fertility rate over the100-year period. Predicting future global population numbers is a complex anddifficult, but necessary, task.

Suggested Readings: John Bongaarts and Rodolpho A. Bulatao, Beyond Six Billion: Forecasting

the World’s Population, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000; Wolfgang Lutz, The

Future Population of the World: What Can We Assume Today?, London: Earthscan Publications,1996; Brian O’Neill and Deborah Balk, “World Population Futures,” Population Bulletin, vol. 56(2001).

Population pyramid. The age and gender structure of a population is clearlypresented in a useful graphic called the population pyramid. The graphic in-

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Population Projection from the United Nations. Source: Long

Range World Population Projections: Based on the 1998 Revision,

ESA/P/WP 153 (1999). Used by permission of the United Nation.

cludes data on female and malesegments of the population plottedon either side of a vertical line inthe center of the display. Numeri-cal age groups, usually in 5-yearcohorts, are plotted along the ver-tical line, with the youngest agegroup, 0–4 years, at the base of thegraphic, and the oldest, 75 andabove, at the top. The horizontalbase line is plotted with either per-centages of the population or ac-tual numbers of females and males.The zero point on this line is lo-

cated at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal lines.The shape of the population pyramid provides an immediate visual indica-

tion of the country’s age cohort structure and the potential for future growth.For example, a population pyramid that is wide at the bottom and narrow atthe top identifies a population that is growing at a high rate of increase. Thereasoning behind this conclusion is easy to see: the largest numbers of peopleare found in the youngest age cohorts (0–4, 5–9, 10–14) and in women in thechildbearing years (15–45). Greater numbers of people in these age cohorts en-sure high population growth rates in the future. There would be high popula-tion gains in this case even if all couples in the country could be convinced toadhere to the population replacement rate of 2.1 children per family.

A population pyramid with essentially equal representation of people acrossall the age cohorts, except for the oldest, indicates a stable population, one thathas achieved or is near to achieving zero population growth (ZPG). Only afew countries in western Europe have reached this point. ZPG cannot occuruntil a country completes the demographic transition, in which crudebirthrates (CBRs) and crude death rates (CDRs) are essentially even in value.Countries in the developing world all have high rates of natural increase(RNIs) because birth rates exceed death rates by significant margins. Continu-ally high RNIs are behind what has been called the population explosion.

There are a few countries (Germany, Austria, and France, for instance) thathave experienced negative RNIs and declines in population. A populationpyramid for a country in this demographic situation would be narrow in theyounger age cohorts and wider throughout the older ones.

Population pyramids can provide a kind of history lesson about a place. Forexample, the population pyramid for Russia in 1970 would illustrate the resultsof human losses in World War II (estimated at 20 million), the Stalinist purgesof the 1930s (possibly another 20 million), and losses during the Russian Rev-olution at the end of World War I. These historical events appear on the pop-ulation pyramid as a constriction, or narrowing, of the shape of the graphic. A

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Population Pyramid. Source: Author’s creation.

population pyramid for the United States in 2000 would show a bulge in the35–50 age cohorts, who are people born during the post–World War II babyboom.

Suggested Readings: C. Alison McIntosh and Jason L. Finkle, “The Cairo Conference onPopulation and Development: A New Paradigm?” Population and Development Review, vol. 21(1995); United Nations, Population and Women, New York: United Nations, 1996.

Possibilism. Possibilism suggests that humans have choices in the way they in-teract with their physical setting; it is the antithesis of environmental deter-minism. A number of prominent European and American geographers workingat the end of the nineteenth century furthered the idea that geography shouldbecome the science that studied the interface between nature and culture, theenvironment, and the human element. Among these disciplinary leaders wereHalford J. Mackinder, Friedrich Ratzel, and William Morris Davis. These ge-ographers were unanimous in the view that human–environment interactionshould be the conceptual base of the discipline. However, they all believed thatculture groups were reactive in their collective behavior to the more com-pelling physical environment.

At the end of the nineteenth century, some geographers modified this con-ceptual view and contended that the environment played a supremely domi-nant role by controlling and even determining the actions of the culture groupliving within that environment. The school of geography known as environ-mental determinism influenced thinking in the discipline over the openingtwo decades of the twentieth century. By the end of that period, geographersrepresenting the school of human geography in France began to dispute therigidity of the environmental determinist position. Through the work of PaulVidal de la Blache and others, a more reasoned approach, called “possibilism,”emerged.

Possibilists suggested that the environment provided its human occupantswith a range of opportunities for action and with a set of choices to make inresponding to their immediate physical setting. Possibilism, as proposed byFrench geographers, stressed that the environment exerted influences on thehuman occupiers but by no means controlled or determined their range of ac-tivities. Possibilism, then, proposed that the environment and its human oc-cupants had essentially equal roles.

There is no argument among geographers about the fact that the environ-ment influences human activity. People in the arctic regions respond in quitedifferent ways to the environment than occupants of the tropical rain forest.It is equally true that countries equipped with advanced technological capa-bilities have far greater choice in their responses to the environment than dosubsistence agriculturalists in West Africa. However, regardless of the tech-nological level of a country, some extreme environmental episodes, such asflooding, drought, hurricanes, and other natural hazards can wreak havoc oncountries, both rich and poor. Such severe environmental disruptions as the

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San Francisco earthquake and Hurricane Hugo will dramatically limit therange of human choices, at least temporarily.

Suggested Readings: R. J. Johnston, The Dictionary of Human Geography, 2nd ed., Oxford,U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 2000; Paul Vidal de le Blache, “Meaning and Aim of Human Geography,”in Human Geography: An Essential Anthology, ed. John Agnew et al., Cambridge, Mass.: BasilBlackwell, 1996.

Postindustrial economy. The United States, Germany, Japan, and a number ofother countries in the developed world have experienced a significant changein economic structure in the last 50 years. Beginning in the 1950s, more jobshave shifted to the service sector, and goods-producing industries (agriculture,forestry, fishing, mining, construction, and manufacturing) have shown rela-tive declines. In 1950, goods-producing industries represented 49 percent oftotal employment in the United States. By 1980 this sector had declined to 33percent. The service sector, with 51 percent of total employment in 1950,jumped to 67 percent in 1980. The service sector in the United States reached81 percent in 2000, and will most likely continue to grow.

The primary and secondary sectors of the U.S. economy have diminished inrelative importance. The primary sector includes extractive industries, such asagriculture, fishing, and forestry. This sector has declined from 13 percent ofthe total workforce in 1950 to less than 3 percent in 2000. Agriculture alonerepresents about 2 percent of the U.S. workforce. Yet, despite its small number,yields of food products continue to increase. The high productivity levels inagriculture are due to technological advancements, mechanization, and the ap-plication of scientific methods in farming. Progress in this economic sector hasallowed for the growth and development of expansive agribusiness organiza-tions. The secondary sector, including manufacturing and processing activities,has also declined in relative representation as the overall economy shifted to-ward a strong service-sector orientation. However, the relative decline in thenumber of workers in the secondary sector is deceiving for two reasons: (1) theexisting manufacturing workforce is much more productive than in earlieryears due to greater technological inputs, advanced assembly techniques, and,in some industries, the use of robotics; and (2) thousands of manufacturing jobshave been “outsourced” to other countries in order to take advantage of lowerlabor costs. Transnational corporations that are based in the leading industri-alized countries manage these overseas operations.

The tertiary sector, the major provider of services directly to consumers, hasincreased dramatically in the postindustrial era. Retail clerks, maintenanceworkers, and janitorial services are a few of the occupations within the tertiarysector. The next level is the quaternary sector, in which medical services, re-search activities, higher education, and high-technology operations are found.This sector has experienced significant growth, especially since the introduc-tion and refinement of the computer and its use in essentially every economicendeavor. Finally, the quinary sector has also emerged as a high-growth service


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component in the postindustrial economy. Workers in this sector are con-cerned with high-level investigations of new forms of social economic systems.Included in the quinary sector are decision makers at the highest level of busi-ness and government and chief executive officers of national and multina-tional corporations. These individuals are the so-called movers and shakers.

The postindustrial economy is marked by the emergence of high technologyand information processing at its conceptual base. However, the goods-producingfunctions in the primary and secondary sectors of the economy have by no meansbeen abandoned.

Suggested Readings: David Clark, Post-Industrial America: A Geographical Perspective, NewYork: Methuen, 1985; Peter Dicken and Peter E. Lloyd, Location in Space: Theoretical Perspectives

in Economic Geography, 3rd ed., New York: Harper & Row, 1990.

Postmodernism. The Enlightenment in eighteenth-century Europe was a pe-riod in intellectual thought that stressed the power of reason and the progressof rationality. The Enlightenment signaled a move away from centuries of whatwas considered a traditional way of life and began the era of modernism. Post-modernism, introduced in the late twentieth century, is an assault on the basicbuilding blocks of modernism, which emphasized order in social, economic,and political systems. Modernist thinkers sought theories and generalizationsto explain the complexities of human life. Postmodernism, on the other hand,has been described as being postparadigm and refuting the necessity for theorybuilding.

For example, modernists placed importance on the notion of systems theory,the contention that apparently random and seemingly disparate outcomes are,in reality, somehow connected to and integrated within larger systems. Mod-ernists suggest that it is only necessary to find the ways in which the parts areconnected to the whole. Postmodernist thinking disputes this approach, con-tending that that are no totalizing systems or universal truths.

Postmodernism first emerged in the fields of architecture and literary the-ory. Its incorporation in geography dates to the 1980s and its place withinthe discipline is still being negotiated. The postmodernist movement stimu-lated geographer Edward Soja to suggest that modernist thought acceptedthe theoretical primacy of history and time over geography and space. Sojaand other geographers have worked to reassert space as an important socialvariable.

The postmodern urban geographer searches for the differences in each cityrather than the similarities. Particularity, diversity, and uniqueness are the an-alytical goals of the postmodernist researcher. Justification for this approachlies in the belief that the world is simply too complex and disjointed and thatthe search for order is pointless. In fact, the postmodernist suggests that thesearch for disorder should be the goal.

Postmodernist geographers are opposed to the model-building and positivistthinking that supported the spatial-science approaches introduced during the

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Quantitative Revolution. Postmodernism has also been called poststructural-ism because it opposes the notions of some sociologists who suggest the pres-ence of so-called deep structures that guide human behavior. Postmodernistsextend their emphasis on difference to the entire realm of the social sciences.The term disorganized capitalism emphasizes the heterogeneity of economic ac-tivity, societal settings, and political functions. The heterogeneity implicit inthe postmodernist perspective provided a conceptual context for the study ofdifferences and diversity within regions instead of a search for order.

Suggested Readings: Derek Gregory, Geographical Imaginations, London: Blackwell, 1994;David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Ox-ford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1989; Edward W. Soja, Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of

Space in Critical Social Theory, London: Verso, 1989.

Primary sector. Economic activities involved with agriculture, the extractionof minerals and fuels, lumbering, and the initial processing of the associatedmaterials represents the primary sector. Industries in this category tend to belocated close to the materials that are grown, extracted, or processed. For ex-ample, 98 percent of the ore containing copper is waste material. The first stepsin the processing of this ore is accomplished at the mine site, because it wouldnot be economically sensible to pay for the long-distance hauling of ore com-posed primarily of waste material. Processors of meat have, within the last fewyears, located their operations in feedlots near metropolitan areas to be close tothe market centers.

Primary extractive industries deal with both renewable resources and non-renewable resources. Renewable resource industries include forestry, fishing,and agriculture. They are called renewable because the resource can be re-placed. That is, new trees can be grown to replace those taken for lumber, fishpopulations continue to grow, and agricultural crops can be replanted the fol-lowing year. However, care must be taken to ensure the continued availabilityof these resources. Overfishing of some oceanic fish and mammal species hasgreatly lowered their numbers. Also, the damming of rivers in the PacificNorthwest has disrupted the spawning runs of salmon and has resulted in a re-duction in their numbers. Similar concerns have been raised about the clear-cutting of forests. More than half of the original tropical rain forest has beeneliminated, and if current rates of tree removal continue, the world’s rainforests could be completely eliminated in a few decades.

The major nonrenewable resources are petroleum, natural gas, and coal. Allthree are important sources of power for industries and homes. Coal is the mostplentiful of these three resources. China has reserves of coal that could last upto 500 years and the United States has reserves for 250 to 300 years, dependingon usage rates. However, the known reserves of petroleum and natural gas arenot nearly as plentiful. For instance, it is estimated that petroleum reserves inthe Middle East will last for only another 100 years. Middle Eastern countriesare the world’s major suppliers of this precious commodity. Petroleum’s impor-

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tance to the global economy occasioned a group of suppliers to form a cartelin the 1960s called the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC). This group decided to collectively raise the price of a barrel of crudeoil from about $3 in 1973 to nearly $60 in 1980. The oil-price shocks that oc-curred in 1973 and 1980 were particularly devastating to the economy ofNorth America and western Europe. This series of events is a classic example ofthe economic influence on geopolitics.

Countries that are engaged in primary industrial activities as their mainstayare called primary producers. Most of the countries in the developing world fallinto this category. Chad, for instance, derives over 90 percent of its export in-come from the sale of raw cotton. Zambia is one of the world’s major exportersof copper. Most of Sub-Saharan Africa is heavily invested the production ofplantation agriculture goods for export. Dependence on one or two exportcrops to provide the majority of a country’s income is not economically lucra-tive for three reasons: (1) the prices of commodities are low compared to theirvalue when transformed into manufactured goods or processed into food prod-ucts; (2) the price of commodities can swing widely depending on the supply ofthe item; and (3) a country may respond incorrectly to the lowering of priceson the world market because of overproduction by producing more of the item.Adding to an already saturated market has the effect of driving the price downeven further.

Suggested Readings: John Tarrant, “Farming and Food,” in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of

World Geography, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991; John E. Young, Mining the Earth,

Worldwatch Paper no. 109, Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1992.

Primate city. The term primate city has two different but related meanings. In1939, American geographer Mark Jefferson published an article in the Geo-graphical Review titled “The Law of the Primate City.” In this article, Jeffersonargued that a dominant city could be found in every major region, and that citywas the foremost representative of the region’s culture. The primate city in Jef-ferson’s view was preeminent in the economic, social, and political life of theregion. Jefferson also noted regularity in the size of the primate city relative tothe second and third cities in the region. This ratio was expressed as 100:30:20,indicating that the population of the second-largest city was 30 percent of thatof the first, and the population of the third-ranked city was 20 percent of thatof the first. The primate city attained its commanding size because of its lead-ership in the region and its ability to attract economic enterprises and greaternumbers of people. A simple numerical index has been devised to measure thedegree of primacy of the leading center:

Index of primacy = P1/P2

Where P1 and P2 are the populations of the primate city and the second-largestcity. In this formula, the higher the index the greater the primacy of the city. Ob-

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vious primate cities at the global level are New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo,all of them being economic, social, and political leaders in their countries.

Primate city has also been used to identify the largest urban place in devel-oping countries. Fort example, Mexico City has a metropolitan population of25 million, which is one-fourth the population of Mexico and more than 10times that of Guadalajara, the second-largest city. In many cases, the explana-tion for the emergence of the primate city derives from its selection as the ad-ministrative headquarters during the era of colonialism. For example, Lagos,Nigeria, became the center of British activity in that era. Lagos was the admin-istrative center and the major shipping point for the export of commoditiesdestined for Britain and the import of manufactured goods and items needed inthe colonial operation. Virtually all the functions of the colonial system fo-cused on Lagos. Following Nigeria’s independence in the 1960s, restrictions onindigenous migration into Lagos were lifted, and the city’s population furtherincreased. In 2000 the population of Lagos reached 11 million. To alleviatesome of the population pressure on the city, a decision was reached to move thecapital and some administrative functions to an inland city. Lagos, however, re-mains an extremely crowded city. Other primate cities around the world in-clude Manila, Bangkok, and Nairobi, all of which are dominant centers ofinfluence within their respective countries.

Suggested Readings: David Drakakis-Smith, The Third World City, New York: Methuen,1987; Josef Gugler, Cities in the Developing World: Issues, Theory, and Policy, London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1997.

Projection. The globe is the most accurate model of the earth. It is a replica ofthe earth in its spherical shape, and it graphically presents all of the land andwater bodies in their correct locations, shapes, and distances from one another.Any area on the globe’s surface is three-dimensional because of its curvature. Amap, on the other hand, is a two-dimensional surface, and in the transforma-tion from a curved surface a degree of distortion is introduced. The distortion isseen in one or more of four dimensions: size, shape, distance, and direction. Aprojection is the process used to transform the curved surface of the globe tothe flat surface of a map.

Hundreds of map projections have been developed. Cartographers use anumber of basic projection types related to the noted dimensions of distortion.If the cartographer wants a map that can be used to compare areas on theearth’s surface as closely as possible, a projection in the equal-area family isused. With an equal-area projection, one may visually compare the areas, forexample, of South America and Greenland or Montana and Mongolia.

The equidistant projection portrays areas accurately in term of the distancesseparating them. For the retention of correct directional relationships, the az-imuthal projection is used. Geographers or map users must remember to choosethe right map for the task at hand. If area comparison is important in a study,then an equal-area projection is required.

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It is important for the map user to understand the nature of distortion in anymap being considered. Knowledge of the globe’s graticule, or latitude and lon-gitude reference system, provides the needed insights to note the form of dis-tortion on any map. On a globe, the lines of latitude (or parallels) are, as thename suggests, parallel to one another. Parallels are also evenly spaced: the sur-face distance between 10 degrees north and 25 degrees north is the same as thatbetween 30 degrees south and 45 degrees south. Also, the parallels diminish incircumference toward the poles. The lines of longitude (or meridians) con-verge at the poles and the space between them diminishes toward the poles.Parallels and meridians create 90-degree angles wherever they cross. A glanceat any map that has a graticule gives an immediate indication of the form anddegree of distortion. For example, in a cylindrical projection the parallels re-main parallel but the spacing between them increases toward the poles. Merid-ians on a cylindrical projection remain parallel and do not converge as they doon the globe. On maps of this type, areas in the high latitudes are greatly en-larged. For example, Greenland appears larger than South America, which ofcourse is not the case. When in doubt about the true shapes or areas of placeson a map, it is best to consult a globe.

Suggested Readings: American Cartographic Association, Matching the Map Projection to the

Need, Special Publication no. 3, Falls Church, Va.: American Congress on Surveying and Map-ping, 1991; John P. Snyder, Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections, Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Ptolemy (ca. A.D. 100–ca. 170). Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus) was an ex-tremely influential scholar whose conclusions about the dimensions of theearth and compilations of data on the celestial bodies became the guiding doc-trine through the European Middle Ages (about A.D. 500–1500). Ptolemyworked at the famous library at Alexandria from A.D. 127 to 150. During thattime he wrote the Almagest, a classic study of astronomy and the movements ofthe stars and planets. Ptolemy was in agreement with the ancient Greek phi-losopher Aristotle that the earth was the center of the universe and that all ce-lestial bodies revolved around it. This theory was not proven false until thework of the Polish astronomer Copernicus in the sixteenth century.

Ptolemy wrote summaries of Greek knowledge of astronomy and a book list-ing places using the latitude and longitude system devised by an earlier Greekscholar, Hipparchus. He also produced a world map that showed the IndianOcean enclosed on the south by a landmass named Terra Incognita (unknownland). The presence of this landmass was not finally refuted until the voyage ofthe English captain James Cook in 1768–71. Arabic sailors who were familiarwith the region had reported long before Cook’s voyage that Terra Incognitadid not exist.

Ptolemy accepted the measurement of the earth’s circumference calculatedby Greek philosopher Posidonius in the second century B.C. This measurementwas smaller than the remarkably accurate one completed a century earlier by

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Greek astronomer and geographer Eratosthenes. When the Italian explorerChristopher Columbus planned his epoch-making voyage in the fifteenth cen-tury, he used the circumference measure accepted by Ptolemy. In doing so,Columbus figured that the distance to Asia was much shorter than it actuallyis. So, when Columbus landed in the New World he thought he had success-fully reached Asia. He named the indigenous culture groups he encounteredIndians, an inaccuracy that persists to the present time.

Ptolemy was the last great Greek scholar before the beginning of the MiddleAges, a 1,000-year period during which much of the literature of the Greek andRoman eras was lost. Through the Middle Ages, Ptolemaic thought dominatedastronomy and astrology.

Suggested Readings: George Kish, A Source Book in Geography, Cambridge: Harvard Univer-sity Press, 1978; Geoffrey J. Martin and Preston E. James, All Possible Worlds: A History of Geo-

graphical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Purchasing power parity. The standard international measure of a country’s af-fluence has been gross national product (GNP) and GNP per capita, reportedin U.S. dollars. For a number of reasons, this measure provides an inaccuratepicture of real buying power in developing countries. First, GNP per capita is acountrywide average, and it does not report the great differences in incomeswithin a country. Most developing countries have a dual societal structure inwhich a small percentage of wealthy people control most of the wealth and themajority of the population has very little. There are also great differences in thepurchasing power of local currencies. For instance, an item in the United Statesor Canada that costs $5 might sell for $2 or $3 in a developing country. Whenthe factor of increased purchasing power is taken into account, the economiclevel of a country is much higher than it is when reported by GNP alone. An-other consideration invalidates GNP as an accurate measure of buying power indeveloping countries: only the formal sector of the economy is reported to thegovernment and taken into account when total revenues are tabulated. Missingfrom the country’s total income are the proceeds generated by the informal sec-tor, a vast network of business activities that are not reported.

In 1993, the World Bank instituted a new reporting system called purchasingpower parity (PPP). This new approach took into account the purchasingpower in local currencies. GNP per capita in Sub-Saharan Africa is less than$750 in nearly every country in the region. When PPP is used as the measure,however, these same countries show per capita values ranging from less than$750 to over $4,000.

Although the PPP reporting system paints a more appealing picture of eco-nomic conditions in the developing world, it is true that general levels of afflu-ence are behind those in the developed countries. The status of absolutepoverty grips perhaps 30 to 35 percent of the population in developing coun-tries. An income of $1 marks the level of absolute poverty. Using PPP increasesthe annual income from $365 to over $450, an improvement, but still a state ofabsolute poverty.


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Despite the invocation of PPP, the plight of most people in the developingworld is grim. Levels of absolute poverty are expected to climb as populationcontinues to increase and economic growth stalls. Development experts areunanimous in their insistence that change in the developing countries requiresan emphasis of improvements in education and more-efficient medical deliverysystems. Of equal importance is the need to employ the large potential work-force in the developing world. In short, economic growth is the key to a betterlife in the developing world, and it takes time for viable economic systems tobecome established and to thrive. In the meantime, the bitterness of povertypersists.

Suggested Readings: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank,World Development Report, New York: Oxford University Press, annual; George T. Kurian, Atlas

of the Third World, New York: Facts on File, 1992.

Push and pull factors. Two primary generators of the migration of individualsand groups of people are push and pull factors. Basically, a push factor impelspeople to leave their present location because of political instability, adverseenvironmental conditions, or the lack of viable economic opportunities. Forexample, the Jewish population in Germany during the Nazi regime found thepolitical climate of racial suppression unbearable, and millions left the country.Drought conditions over the last 20 years in the Sahel, the semiarid area on thesouthern margin of the Sahara Desert in Africa, forced thousands of people toleave that region. Many of them became refugees because they could not findsuitable accommodations in other areas.

Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, many South Vietnamesefled the country as the North Vietnamese conquerors moved in to occupy theregion. Another example of a push factor is seen in the exodus of people fromEast Germany as the Berlin Wall was under construction. The Berlin Wall, sur-rounding West Berlin, was built in 1961; it was torn down in 1989. Political re-pression in communist East Germany served as a compelling reason to leavethe country.

Pull factors draw people to new places for economic, environmental, or cul-tural reasons. People are perennially drawn to large metropolitan areas becausethe prospects for employment are good. New York City, Chicago, and Los An-geles have an unending stream of newcomers arriving in search of jobs. Thesame is true of other major cities, such as Tokyo, London, and Paris. There isalso the pull of an entire country. The United States has attracted millions ofimmigrants from all over the world seeking jobs and a better way of life. West-ern European countries have regularly drawn workers from countries in theMiddle East and Southwest Asia as the younger age groups have diminished innumbers.

The Sunbelt in the United States—the tier of states from California east toFlorida—has experienced dramatic growth in population in recent decades.Many companies in the northern states have chosen to either relocate or ex-pand operations to the warmer climes of the Sunbelt. Movements of this kind


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bring employees to the new site. Individual retirees from northern states arechoosing to retire in the Sunbelt and escape the long cold winters in the north.In both of these situations there are both push and pull factors in operation.

Suggested Readings: Phillip Martin and Elizabeth Midgley, “Immigration to the UnitedStates,” Population Bulletin, vol. 54 (1999); Charles B. Nam et al., International Handbook on Mi-

gration, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990.


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Quantitative Revolution. American geography in the early twentieth centurycame out of a brief encounter with environmental determinism and thenshifted to a regional focus. The regional approach came under attack in the1950s by a group of geographers claiming that it had no sound theoretical un-derpinnings and that there were no attempts by regional geographers to de-velop higher-level generalizations that could lead to theory building in thediscipline. For example, a study of a particular urban region in one part of thecountry was not undertaken with the aim of eventually being able to comparethe research outcomes with an urban place somewhere else. The concern of thecritics was that most geographical studies were particularistic and stressed theuniqueness of places. The work was ideographic in nature and not nomothetic,or law seeking. Against this disciplinary backdrop, geographers at a number ofU.S. universities launched what has come to be called the Quantitative Revo-lution.

The view of these geographers was that the discipline of geography shouldbecome more robust and vital, and the way to accomplish this was to includestatistical and quantitative techniques in geography research projects. Geog-raphy, it turns out, had always used quantitative techniques, but the advo-cates of a more scientific geography insisted on a great deal more of them.Physical geography had already incorporated a numerical analysis because ofthe nature of its work. What was new was the expansive inclusion of quanti-tative and statistical techniques within human geography. Especially signifi-cant was the use of the new techniques in economic and urban geography.Some areas of the discipline were little influenced by the wave of quantifica-tion that unfolded. Among them were cultural geography and historical ge-

ography, areas of the discipline that progressed without the need for addednumerical analysis.

Within the discipline as a whole, there were many geographers who thoughtthat the push for quantification was at best taking geography down the wrongroad or at worst not geography at all. During the 1950s and 1960s, a number ofspirited exchanges about the movement, both pro and con, appeared in Profes-sional Geographer, one of the journals published by the Association of Ameri-can Geographers.

The real goal of the advocates of quantification was to create added objec-tivity in geographical studies and to further the philosophical tenets of logicalpositivism in the discipline. This could be accomplished, the advocates con-tended, through the use of formal logic mathematics and empirical observa-tion.

By the end of the 1960s, the Quantitative Revolution was challenged by ge-ographers who insisted on a more humane approach in the discipline. Withinthe first few years of the 1970s, studies in behavioral geography and humanis-tic geography began to appear in the professional literature. Both of thesephilosophical streams were generated in reaction against what was perceived asthe cold objectivity of quantification and its dehumanizing approaches to geo-graphical study.

In time the initial fervor for the Quantitative Revolution abated, but manyof the numerical techniques and a good share of the rationale for the approachremain in geography. For instance, the practice of sampling from a larger popu-lation, the use of correlation and regression techniques, and the analysis of pat-tern with statistics are all part of the geographer’s methodological inventory.

Suggested Readings: W. K. D. Davies, The Conceptual Revolution in Geography, London: Uni-versity of London Press, 1972; David Harvey, Explanation in Geography, London: Edward Arnold,1969; Richard L. Morrill, “The Nature, Unity, and Value of Geography,” Professional Geographer,

vol. 35 (1983).

Quaternary sector. The quaternary sector is one of the fastest-growing industrygroups in the postindustrial economy. Economic activities in the quaternarysector include accounting, finance, higher education, computer services, gov-ernmental operations, and the media. The quaternary sector is also known fa-miliarly as the white-collar sector, a name that for years has identified middleand top management in business and industry.

A large and growing part of the quaternary sector involves the accumula-tion, processing, and transmission of information. In many ways, informationhas become the crucial element in coordinating the efforts of the primary, sec-ondary, and tertiary sectors of the global economy.

The quaternary sector may be compared with the bridge and control centeron a large naval vessel. The decision making engaged in is necessary to thesmooth operation of the entire ship. Decisions made about the amount of crudesteel to produce or to be imported in the next year, the number of automobiles

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to be manufactured, or the research directions to be taken by a pharmaceuticalfirm are examples of the kinds of tasks accomplished in the quaternary sector.

Employees in the quaternary sector are, for the most part, experts in theirfields. They have developed the specialized knowledge and technical skillsnecessary to make difficult operational decisions and to anticipate and beproactive to changes in their particular industry. Many aspects of the decision-making process in the quaternary sector have become so specialized and com-plex that separate consulting firms have been created solely to handle thesetasks. These firms make their services available to companies needing assis-tance in specific areas of their operation. For example, a manufacturer maywant advice on establishing a robotics function in an assembly process and willseek the assistance of a consultant in that field. An accounting firm wanting toupgrade or change its business computer system may solicit help in choosingthe right equipment from consultants knowledgeable in the latest computersystems. Even public school districts have employed educational consultants tohelp in the improvement of teaching and learning in their schools. In somecases, school districts have come under the management of private firms thatrun the schools on a contract basis.

Quaternary industries are located throughout every country in the devel-oped world. Rapid communication and efficient transportation systems haveallowed many activities to become footloose and to seek varied locales inwhich to set up operations. However, some quaternary industries are clusteredin high-tech corridors such as California’s Silicon Valley, the Research Trian-gle Park in North Carolina, and Japan’s high-density corridor reaching fromTokyo west to northern Kyushu.

Suggested Readings: Stanley D. Brunn and Thomas R. Leinbach, Collapsing Space and Time:

Geographical Aspects of Communications and Information, London: HarperCollins Academic,1991; Manuel Castels and Peter Hall, Technopoles of the World: The Making of 21st Century In-

dustrial Complexes, London: Routledge, 1994; Mark E. Hepworth, Geography of the Information

Economy, New York: Guilford Press, 1990.

Quinary sector. Decision making at the highest levels of the economy and na-tional government occur within the quinary sector. In the United States, thework of the president, the presidential cabinet, and the two houses of Congressrepresent activities in the quinary sector. Certain forms of medical and scien-tific research are also found in the quinary sector. For example, the govern-mental decision to seek bids on a new military fighter plane or considerationsof the efficacy of human cloning are quinary-sector activities.

It is in the quinary sector that research is conducted aimed at improving theexisting socioeconomic system and taking it to new heights. The high-level de-cisions made in the quinary sector are meant to introduce new knowledge, in-formation, and skills into the economy to bring about growth andimprovement. For example, the governmental decision many years ago to cre-ate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was made at the highest lev-

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els. The purpose of the decision was, of course, to create a federal agency tomonitor and protect the environment. Taking this example a bit further, it ishoped that this quinary-sector decision will ultimately improve the socioeco-nomic setting for the entire country through sound management and protec-tion of the environment.

International efforts to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases into the at-mosphere (see Greenhouse effect) resulted in a series of conferences over atwo-decade period that culminated in the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. The UnitedStates signed the protocol, but the document was never submitted to the Sen-ate for ratification. In time, the Kyoto Protocol was scrapped, but efforts con-tinue to suppress greenhouse gas emissions. All of the decisions concerningatmospheric degradation and proposals to rectify the problems were made atthe quinary level.

The quinary sector is increasing in size and importance in the same manneras the quaternary sector. In fact, all of the service sectors are on the increaseand will continue to increase in the future. Primary and secondary sectors, al-though not as highly represented in numbers of workers since the transition tothe postindustrial society, remain important in the overall economy. Thenumber of workers in the primary and secondary sectors may be diminishing,but outputs remain high. This positive outcome is attributable in large part tothe efficient coordinating efforts of the quaternary sector and the innovativeand enhancing inputs from the quinary sector.

Suggested Readings: Maryanne Feldman and Richard Florida, “The Geographical Sources ofInnovation: Technological Infrastructure and Product Innovation in the United States,” Annals

of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 84 (1994); Donald J. Porteus, The Geography of

Finance, Aldershot, U.K.: Avebury Press, 1995.

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Range. See Christaller’s central place theory.

Rank-size rule. German geographer George K. Zipf (1902–50) developed a hy-pothesis published in 1949 for predicting the populations of urban places in aregion based on the rank of any one urban place. His studies indicated thatthere was invariably a single largest urban place and that the populations of theother urban places were in a regular ratio to the first. This rank-size relation-ship can be stated in a simple expression:

Pr = P1/r

where Pr is the population of the urban place of rank r, P1 is the population ofthe first-ranked place, and r is the rank. For example, if City A has 900,000people and is the first-ranked place, then according to the rank-size rule thepopulation of City B, second to A, would be one-half that of A:

B = 900,000/2 = 450,000

The third-ranked city would be 300,000, and so forth. So, if it is known thatthe fourth-ranked city in a region has a population of one million, it is possibleto predict the populations of the first, second, third, and other places in the re-gion. The first-ranked city would have 4 million; the second, 2 million; thethird, 1.33 million; and the fifth, 800,000.

When the rank-size values are graphed using arithmetic scales, the result is aJ-shaped curve. The J-shaped curve illustrates the relationship very clearly, but

it is difficult to use in determining adherence to the rank-size rule when actualvalues are plotted. To solve this problem, logarithmic scales are used on boththe horizontal and vertical axes. The predicted values now connect with astraight line. When actual populations are plotted, it is easy to note variancesfrom the predicted regularity of the rank-size rule.

When urban places in the developed world are plotted, there is a close ad-herence to the predicted regularity. Of course, no country exactly fits the rela-tionship, but many are very close. Japan, Australia, Canada, and the UnitedStates, among others, have rank-size relationships that closely fit the predic-tions of the rank-size rule. In the case of the United States, the regularity is re-tained in every census year since the first in 1790. Since that year, when thepopulation was a mere 4 million, the rank-size rule has held, even though totalpopulation increased to over 270 million by 2000. The rule holds through thisperiod even though cities changed rank, some cities dropped out of the rank-ings, and new cities increased in population and joined the rankings as west-ward expansion unfolded.

An explanation for the regularity in the rank-size rule is that it applies pri-marily to the developed countries. But it applied to the United States when thecountry was engaged primarily in agriculture and into the industrial andpostindustrial eras. The rule also works in the cities of China, a developingcountry throughout its history. The rank-size rule has never been explained tothe satisfaction of all geographers. Yet, the regularity exists.

Developing countries, especially those that were former colonies, show a dif-ferent rank-size relationship. In their case, the primate city is prevalent. Dur-ing the era of colonialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, oneurban place was chosen to be the administrative center. These places grewmuch faster than other urban places in the colony. Following independence,these primate cities retained their size advantage and continued to be the lead-ing centers in the postcolonial period. Lagos, Nigeria, for example, the admin-istrative center under British colonial rule, today is many times larger than thesecond city in the country. In fact, Lagos became so large and difficult to man-age that a new administrative capital for the country was established in the in-terior. This has alleviated some of the pressure on Lagos, but it remainsovercrowded.

Suggested Readings: John W. Marshall, “Beyond the Rank-Size Rule: A New Descriptive

Model of City Sizes,” Urban Geography, vol. 18 (1997); Clifton Pannell, “China’s Urban Transi-

tion,” Journal of Geography, vol. 94 (1995).

Rate of natural increase. The rate of natural increase (RNI) of a population isfound by subtracting the crude death rate (CDR) from the crude birthrate

(CBR) and transforming the result into a percentage. For example, the WestAfrican country Benin in 1998 had a CBR of 45 per thousand of total popula-tion and a CDR of 14 per thousand:


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45 (per 1,000) – 14 (per 1,000) = 31 (per 1,000) or 3.1 per 100,which is 3.1 percent

Benin’s RNI is considered high; world RNI is about 1.3 percent and the RNIfor the developing world is about 1.6 percent. Benin’s percentage is, of course,attributed to higher birthrates, a characteristic of countries in the developingworld. Although birthrates have declined globally over the past few decades,their drop has not equaled that of death rates. Consequently, any country withan abnormally high birthrate invariably has a high RNI. Sub-Saharan Africahas the highest RNI values in the world. Within that vast region, West Africaand East Africa have RNI values near 3.0 percent, whereas the value for cen-tral Africa is over 3.0 percent.

In contrast, nearly every country in Europe has an RNI less than 1.0 percent,and some have experienced several years of negative RNI, a situation that oc-curs when the death rate exceeds the birthrate. A situation such as this may in-dicate a general lowering of total population in a country. However, an overallloss of population may not necessarily occur, because RNI does not considerthe number of people gained or lost through migration. For example, in the1980s, West Germany’s RNI was negative for a number of years but its net mi-gration into the country more than made up for natural decline. Unlike Benin,West Germany’s CBR was very low and its average age was high. As a result,there were far fewer people in the childbearing years.

Suggested Readings: Arthur Haupt and Thomas Kane, Population Handbook, 4th ed., Wash-ington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 1997; several world population links are found atthe Center for Disease Control Web site, www.cdc.gov/nchswww.

Ratzel, Friedrich (1844–1904). Friedrich Ratzel, with his contemporariesBritish geographer Halford J. Mackinder and American geographer WilliamMorris Davis, was a pioneer in crafting late-nineteenth-century German geog-raphy. This period was crucial in the development of the discipline. Thegolden age of exploration had ended, and with it, as many historians of the dis-cipline contend, the high point in the history of geography. It was also thedawn of a new era for geography as separate departments were opening in uni-versities. Ratzel and other prominent geographers worked to make the casethat geography should be granted a position in university curricula. The justifi-cation furthered by Ratzel and others was that no other discipline dealt withthe spatial aspects of the interface between nature and culture, what is now re-ferred to as human–environment interaction. Ratzel was one of the premier ex-ponents of this conceptual view.

Ratzel’s early education was in zoology, geology, and comparative anatomy.His doctoral thesis dealt with aspects of nineteenth-century English naturalistCharles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Ratzel was a prolific field worker in thestyle of Alexander von Humboldt. He studied German resettlement followingthe unification of the country in 1871. Ratzel visited the United States in

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1874–75 to do fieldwork on settlement pattern forma-tion of different culture groups within a common re-gion. His work in the United States convinced Ratzelto become a geographer.

In 1886, Ratzel was appointed professor of geogra-phy at Leipzig University. His major writing includesthe two-volume work Anthropogeographie. In volumeone, published in 1882, Ratzel discussed the effects ofvarious physical features on the course of history.Later historians of geography used this work to linkRatzel to the concept of environmental determinism,an extreme stance on the pervasive dominance of thephysical world on occupying culture groups. The sec-ond volume of Anthropogeographie, published in 1891,paid greater attention to the workings of culturegroups and to diffusion and less to environmental in-fluences. Ratzel also wrote an important book on po-litical geography in 1897 in which he compared theearth to a living organism that must either grow ordie and cannot remain constant. This notion was in-corporated within geopolitics and later was adopted

by the Nazi government in the 1930s to justify the German expansion intoneighboring countries before World War II.

Suggested Readings: J. Anderson, C. Brook, and A. Cochrane, eds., A Global World? Re-

ordering Political Space, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995; Brian W. Blouet, Geopolitics and

Globalization in the Twentieth Century, North Kingstown, R.I.: Reaktion Books, 2001; GeoffreyJ. Martin and Preston E. James, All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Refugees. The plight of refugees represents one of the most tragic situations inthe world. In 1970 there were about three million refugees worldwide. By 2000,according to estimates by the U.S. Commission for Refugees, the number hadincreased to over 30 million. The United Nations High Commission forRefugees defines refugees as people who have been forced to leave their homesand are unable to return because of war, environmental disasters (see Naturalhazards), famine, or repression based on race, religion, nationality, or member-ship in a social group not authorized by the present government.

Palestinians and Afghanis represent the two largest groups of refugees. Thereare more than five million Afghan refugees, most of whom fled their countryduring the Soviet military occupation from 1979 to 1989. Thousands morewere displaced during the first few months of the war on terrorism in 2001.However, many of these Afghan refugees began returning to their homes inearly 2002 as hostilities lessened. Palestinians were displaced when the countryof Israel was created in 1948. Palestinians are spread throughout the Middle

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Friedrich Ratzel. Source: Geoffrey Martin.

East, with at least two-thirds of the population living in the Gaza Strip, Jordan,and the West Bank. Smaller groups are found in Syria, Lebanon, and SaudiArabia. Continued conflict has plagued the Middle East since 1948, and one ofthe demands of the Palestinians is the creation of their own sovereign state, anoutcome that has yet to be realized. In the meantime, tensions between thePalestinians and the Israelis remain high.

Iran is the leading country hosting refugees. More than two million refugeeswere living in Iran in 2000. Most of them were from Afghanistan and Iraq,countries where war has raged in recent decades.

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees crossed into Thailand, Laos,and Cambodia during the Vietnam War, and thousands more left South Viet-nam by boat, plane, and on foot in advance of the North Vietnamese occupa-tion following the end of the war in 1975. A number of African countries haveendured refugee problems in recent years. Among them are Somalia, Sudan,and Ethiopia. In Sudan, the southern highland region is predominantly Chris-tian and the north is Muslim. Conflict between the two dissimilar culturegroups over the years resulted in the displacement of more than two millionSudanese. A slave trade accompanied the conflict, and thousands of youngpeople from Sudan’s southern region were taken to the north in bondage.

Suggested Readings: John R. Rogge, Refugees: A Third World Dilemma, Totowa, N.J.: Row-man & Littlefield, 1987; United Nations High Commission for Refugees, The State of the World’s

Refugees, New York: Oxford University Press, annual; W. Wood, “Forced Migration,” Annals of

the Association of American Geographers, vol. 84 (1994).

Region. The region represents one way of classifying information about places.Every discipline has its own classification systems, and geography is no excep-tion. Geography is a spatial discipline dealing with the physical and culturalcontent of areas. The region is a logical and convenient spatial form for orga-nizing the significant contents of the areas under study.

The concept of region has a long and checkered history in geography. BothStrabo and Ptolemy made reference to regional studies in their writings.Ptolemy, in fact, proposed a three-level approach to the study of places in theknown world. In this schema, geography was proposed as the focus for studyingthe entire world. Ptolemy also proposed that chorography (the art of describingor mapping a region) be the approach for studying large parts of the world. InPtolemy’s time, the known world extended from the Atlantic coast eastthrough the Mediterranean Sea and its adjacent land areas and to the Indiansubcontinent. South of the Indian subcontinent was the Indian Ocean, en-closed, Ptolemy claimed, by the landmass he called Terra Incognita (unknownland). Chorography, Ptolemy proposed, could be used to study parts of thewhole world, such as North Africa or the Indian subcontinent.

Ptolemy’s third level was called topography, and it dealt with the study ofsmall areas in detail. Focus on the Nile River delta, for instance, would qualifyas a topographical study in Ptolemy’s schema. Two of the three levels of

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Ptolemy’s spatial hierarchy are still used and retain the same meaning: geogra-phy and topography. A topographic map covers a limited area in great detail.Chorography, however, was replaced in time by the concept of region. Onepart of the word, choro, is still in use in choropleth map.

Early in the twentieth century, American geography moved away from itsprevailing focus on environmental determinism and took up the study of re-gions. A number of geographers found the regional approach to lack robustnessand felt it was not suitably structured to develop a theoretical base in the disci-pline. The main criticism of the regional approach was that it focused on theunique aspects of the regions under study and that no possibility existed tocompare research outcomes with work done on other regions. The ideographicor particularistic and unique approach, the critics stated, led to unscientific re-search outcomes. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Quantitative Revolution sentgeography in new and unfamiliar conceptual directions and the longtime focuson the region was replaced by systematic (thematic) geography.

In contemporary geography the region remains a viable entity. In addition toits important role in providing a spatial classification system, there are threeadditional regional types used extensively in geography. One of these is theuniform, or formal, region, which is used to identify and delineate an area thathas a predominant cultural or physical feature. The climatic classifications oftundra, tropical rain forest, and desert are examples of uniform regions. In likemanner, maps showing such cultural attributes as Hinduism, the Sinitic lan-guages, and the Inuit culture group are also examples of uniform regions.

Nodal, or functional, regions represent a second type. As the name implies,this regional form is based on the range of influence of a function. For example,a store owner may be interested in determining the extent of the store’s cus-tomer base. A map could be compiled showing home addresses of all customersover the last year. A line on the map would then enclose the area that includesall customer locations. The delineated area identifies the nodal region of cus-tomers frequenting the store in the previous year. The function in this exampleis shopping activity and the attraction of customers to the store location. An-other frequently used example of a nodal region is the range of Sunday newspa-per circulation. Again, once the recipient addresses have been mapped, anenclosing line can be drawn around them to delineate the region.

A third form of region appears in a number of textbooks that discuss thegeographical attributes of areas such as Latin America, East Asia, and Africaby dividing these large areas into logically based regions. For example, a re-gionalization of Africa would include discussion of the region of Sub-SaharanAfrica and the regions within Sub-Saharan Africa: West Africa, centralAfrica, and southern Africa.

The United States and Canada are commonly divided into 15 distinct re-gions. Among them are Megalopolis, the Midwest, the South, the Great Plainsand the prairies, and Maritime Canada. Again, the classification feature of theregion is seen. Each of the regions mentioned was determined by the sum of the

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cultural and physical characteristics found within them. Clearly, the South iseasily distinguished from the Arctic and the Pacific Northwest, just as Mega-lopolis is regionally quite distinct from the Arid Southwest.

Suggested Readings: John Allen, Doreen B. Massey, Allan Cochrane, and JulieCharlesworth, eds., Rethinking the Region, New York: Routledge, 1998; Paul Claval, “The Regionas a Geographical, Economic, and Cultural Concept,” International Social Science Journal, vol. 39(1987); R. J. Johnstone and G. A. Koekveld, eds., Regional Geography: Current Developments and

Future Prospects, New York: Routledge, 1990.

Regional geography. The branch of geography that uses the region as the pri-mary focus of attention is regional geography. Textbooks in regional geographyare organized around discussions of logically derived regional complexes withina larger areal setting. For example, a number of books deal with the regional ge-ography of the United States and Canada, a region in itself and one of a dozenor so regions at the global level. Within the overall region of the United Statesand Canada there are 15 regions, each of which was determined by the sum ofcultural and physical properties that make it distinct from other regions.Among the identified regions are Megalopolis, the urbanized eastern seaboard;the Pacific Northwest, home of the northern rain forest; the Midwest, tradi-tionally a center of agricultural production and manufacturing; the aridSouthwest, a region with a long history of settlement by American Indians,Hispanics, and Anglo-Americans; and the tundra, the northernmost region onthe fringes of the Arctic Ocean. Note that some of the regional names are cul-tural and some reflect a physical or climatic basis.

The most interesting aspect of regional geography, and the factor that advo-cates of the regional focus suggest points to its strength, is the way in which itaddresses both cultural and physical attributes of place. A study of the PacificNorthwest, for example, considers the salient systematic (thematic) geogra-phy of the place. Physical features, economic systems, the urban network, andthe region’s connections to other places in the world, all become componentsin a regional treatment. Regional geography, then, is an integrating and holis-tic analysis of a place. With this in mind, it is understandable that many geog-raphers consider regional geography to be the most authentic approach ingeographical analysis.

Regional geography also focuses on the areal extent of individual spatial at-tributes. The North American manufacturing belt, the Ruhr industrial districtin Germany, and the productive agricultural region in the Ganges River Valleyin northern India are all examples of this kind of focus. In studies of this type,the main intent is to derive the fullest possible explanation of the particularfunctions under analysis. In the case of the North American manufacturingbelt, for example, the regional geographer explains how the region originated,its internal cultural and physical attributes, how it is connected with other re-gions, and the ways it has changed over time.

Regional geography is perhaps the most comprehensive approach to thestudy of places. It provides disciplinary proof that a full and comprehensive

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geographical treatment of any area on the earth’s surface must include suitableinputs from both physical and human geography.

Suggested Readings: John C. Hudson, Across the Land: A Regional Geography of the United

States and Canada, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001; Kenichi Ohmae, “The Riseof the Region State,” Foreign Affairs, spring 1993.

Relative location. Geographers may refer to the location of a place in relationto another place. To do so involves the concept of relative location. Locatingplaces in this manner can be a very powerful tool for geographers because it in-vokes the dynamic character of the discipline. A reference to the Arcade The-ater being six blocks north of the Cando, North Dakota, bus depot is anexample of locating a place (the theater) relative to another place (the busdepot). On another scale, the location of Duluth, Minnesota, may be stated inthis way: Duluth is located 150 miles north-northeast of the Twin Cities. Itmay also be stated that Chicago is 400 miles east-southeast of the Twin Cities.These three examples show how relative location can rise to a higher level ofconceptual sophistication and robustness. In 2000 the population of the TwinCities was about 2.2 million, Duluth had about 75,000 population, andChicago had more than 5 million. It would not be surprising to learn that thenumber of nonstop scheduled airline flights between Chicago and the TwinCities far exceeds the number of flights between the Twin Cities and Duluth. Itmay be concluded that Chicago, although it is farther from the Twin Cities inlinear distance, is closer to the Twin Cities than Duluth if the measure of rela-tive location is accessibility by scheduled airline flights.

Change the scale again and consider the location of the United States rela-tive to the former Soviet Union as shown on a polar-centered map. During thecold war, it was readily apparent that intercontinental ballistic missiles, iflaunched, would be launched over the North Pole to reach their intended tar-get. On a less-ominous note, consider the location of Los Angeles relative tothe larger region of which it is a part: the highly urbanized corridor extendingfrom San Francisco to San Diego. Familiarly named Sansan, this is the third-largest urban integration in the United States, and Los Angeles is strategicallylocated within this fast-growing region, an advantage for economic growth.

At a truly global scale, note the location of Japan relative to its two majoreconomic markets, North America and Europe. Both are essentially halfwayaround the world. This fact makes Japan’s astounding economic success follow-ing its defeat in World War II even more remarkable.

In the discussion of absolute location, reference was made to Mischief Reef,a tiny atoll in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The absolute loca-tion of the place is easily determined. However, it is in the relative location ofMischief Reef that its strategic importance is revealed. This seemingly insignif-icant island lies precisely along key sea-lanes that, among other things, are thedelivery routes for virtually all of Japan’s crude oil. Mischief Reef lies withinthe hotly contested South China Sea, a body of water claimed in total by both

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Chinese governments and Vietnam to be their exclusive property. To add tothe complexity of this geopolitical situation, the Philippines, located to theeast of the Spratly Islands, claims ownership of that island complex, includingMischief Reef. Finally, there is strong evidence that petroleum and natural gasreserves are present in abundance in the seabed below the South China Sea.With all these factors in mind, it is clear that Mischief Reef, and the entirety ofthe South China Sea, is a very dynamic region. Applying the important con-cept of relative location helps to gain a sound perspective on this region andany other region under analysis.

Suggested Readings: William D. Pattison, “The Four Traditions of Geography,” Journal of Ge-

ography, vol. 63 (1964); Tim F. Wood, “Thinking in Geography,” Geography, vol. 72 (1987).

Relict boundary. A relict boundary is one that no longer delineates the separa-tion between countries but remains visible because of existing features repre-senting its previous function. The relict boundary is one of a number ofboundary types that are recognized in political geography. It is testimony tothe frequent changes that have taken place over time along the interfaces ofsovereign states.

The many boundary changes that have taken place between Poland andRussia because of wars and political decisions made through history provideample evidence of relict boundaries. Many of these discarded boundaries wouldbe categorized as relict if there were features in the cultural landscape to attestto their presence in the past. A monument, the name of a town or city associ-ated with the past boundary, or even a section of a wall that served as the phys-ical boundary would classify the boundary as a relict.

The quick removal of the Berlin Wall following the shattering of the com-munist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe resulted in a relictboundary. Any point along the line of the previous barricade where a remnantremains is evidence of a relict boundary. There is cultural evidence of the pres-ence of the boundary separating North and South Vietnam before the end ofthe conflict in 1975. At these points a relict boundary exists.

Suggested Readings: M. D. Hancock and H. Welsh, German Unification: Process and Out-

comes, 2nd ed., Boulder Colo.: Westview Press, 1993; J. R. R. Prescott, Political Frontiers and

Boundaries, London: Allen & Unwin, 1987.

Relocation diffusion. The movement of a business organization to another lo-cation and the migration of people from one country to another are both ex-amples of relocation diffusion. Relocation diffusion differs from expansiondiffusion specifically in the vacating of the original location and moving to anew one. For example, companies relocate for a number of reasons. Wage ratesand rental costs may be more attractive in another region. If the difference incosts is significant, a business may choose to relocate. Many companies in thecrowded eastern seaboard of the United States have chosen to relocate to theSunbelt and the fast-growing industrial states of Virginia and North Carolina.


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People may migrate to other countries because of negative situations in theirhomeland, or they may perceive that more-positive conditions exist in anotherplace. The basis for the move may be a combination of the two. In these situa-tions, particular push and pull factors are closely associated with relocationdiffusion.

Certainly the largest relocation diffusion in history was the migration of mil-lions of people from the European and African countries during the two majorphases of colonialism. The first colonial era began following the discovery ofthe Western Hemisphere in 1492 and continued into the twentieth century.The second colonial era occurred in the nineteenth and early twentieth cen-turies. Migration took place throughout these two eras. The migrants broughttheir religion, languages, social systems, and other cultural attributes to theNew World and in doing so dramatically changed the world. In recent years,migrations have continued as people from Asian countries have migrated toNorth America and Europe to begin a new life.

The twentieth-century Swedish geographer Torsten Hagerstrand pioneeredresearch in the process of diffusion. His statistical modeling of diffusion was in-fluential in furthering this branch of geographical studies.

Relocation may be voluntary or forced. In the United States, families relo-cate to a new residence on average every five years. The move may be acrosstown or from coast to coast. In either case, it is clear that Americans are mo-bile. Permanent changes of residence such as these are examples of relocationdiffusion. A negative example was the forced migration of millions of Africanpeople during the era of slavery. The same is true of the expulsion of the Jewishpopulation from Spain in 1492.

When groups relocate to new areas, they bring their culture with them. Inturn, the new arrivals are exposed to the behaviors and traits of the host group.A certain degree of acculturation occurs following relocation when dissimilargroups of people live together in proximity.

Suggested Readings: Larry H. Long, Migration and Residential Mobility in the United States, NewYork: Russell Sage Foundation, 1988; Colin G. Pooley and Ian D. Whyte, Migrants, Emigrants,

and Immigrants: A Social History of Migration, London: Routledge, 1991.

Renewable resources. The earth’s natural resources are classified as being non-renewable or renewable. Renewable resources, as the name suggests, can beregenerated, either naturally or by human action. Examples of renewable re-sources are forests, fish, agricultural products, livestock, grasses used for forage,and soils. All of these renewable resources are, however, subject to deteriora-tion if usage rates exceed replenishment levels.

Some renewable resources have been greatly overused, and the chances arelow for full replenishment in the future. The tropical rain forests that stretchacross the equatorial belt have been decimated. Demands for tropical wood forfurniture, the expansion of agricultural activities, and the growing of grasses forlivestock have greatly decreased the area of tropical rain forest cover. At pres-

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ent rates of tree removal, it is estimated that the tropical rain forests could becompletely eliminated within a few decades.

Another crisis is unfolding in the oceanic fishing industry. Fish species re-duction through overfishing threatens to cripple the entire industry. The de-mise of the Atlantic cod is a case in point. There is a growing literature on thesubject of sustainable development, an approach that stresses reasonable usagerates to ensure the preservation of the renewable resource base.

Naturally renewable resources represent a separate category and include theacquisition of power from solar, water, wind, and geothermal sources. Technol-ogy has been developed to harness the energy from these resources, and moreattention will certainly be paid to advancing these prospects in the future. In-creasing the amount of energy obtained from the naturally renewable resourceswill lessen our reliance on exhaustible fossil fuels, such as crude oil, natural gas,and coal. Exhaustible resources are nonrenewable. Some nonrenewable re-sources, such as metals and some petroleum products, however, are being recy-cled. This important process actually extends the life of a nonrenewableresource and delays the time of inevitable exhaustion.

Suggested Readings: James R. Coull, World Fisheries Resources, New York: Routledge, 1993;G. Tyler Miller Jr., Resource Conservation and Management, Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1990;Rainforest Action Network Web site, www.ran.org (organization devoted to the protection ofthe rain forests).

Resource. A resource may be an item of information or a material substancethat a society wants or needs and is willing to absorb the cost for attaining. Theresource may be ideas, information, or knowledge. This form of resource has in-creased in volume with the growth of the postindustrial economy. Material re-sources include valuable ores of copper, aluminum, and iron; fuel sources suchas coal, natural gas, and petroleum; and the soils that support agricultural ac-tivities.

To be classified as a resource, the item must be perceived as having a value.For example, the nomadic herdsman would have no use for crude oil, eventhough he may travel the land directly over the underground source. The Eu-ropean industrialist in need of an uninterrupted supply of energy, however, paystop dollar for petroleum products. To the nomadic herdsman, petroleum is nota resource; to the European industrialist, it is a resource of the highest impor-tance.

Material resources are classified as either renewable or nonrenewable. Re-newable resources include forests, fish, agricultural products, plants used forforage, and soils. They are called renewable because they can be regenerated.Soils can be kept fertile and suitable for agriculture by the addition of nutri-ents. Forests can be managed so that trees taken for lumber or paper pulp arereplaced. Livestock herds can be expanded to replace the animals taken forslaughter. The realities of renewal, however, are not always encouraging. Over-fishing in the oceans has threatened the entire fishing industry, and clear-

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cutting of forests is rapidly decimating the acreage of remaining trees. Within afew decades, the remaining tropical rain forests in the world could be com-pletely gone if present rates of clearing are not lowered.

When resources are depleted, the perception of other materials may change.For example, reserves of high-grade hematite and magnetite, the richest ironores, began to diminish in the 1940s and 1950s. This valuable ore was used fordecades in the steel mills of the North American manufacturing belt. Whenthe supplies of these rich ores were exhausted, taconite, an ore containing lessiron, was perceived for the first time as being of industrial value. Extraction ofthis ore and its formulation into pellets for shipment to steel mills marked a bigchange in the steelmaking industry.

The concept of resource is also applied to people. Human resources areneeded in the economic systems worldwide. Capital resources—the machines,buildings, tools, railroads, airplanes, and office buildings that are essential com-ponents of business, industry, and government—also play a key role in theeconomy.

Suggested Readings: David Elliot, Energy, Society, and Environment, New York: Routledge,1997; Judith Rees, Natural Resources: Allocation, Economics, Policy, 2nd ed., New York: Rout-ledge, 1990; World Resources Institute and the International Institute for Environment and De-velopment, World Resources, annual.

Rimland theory. See Mackinder, Halford J.

Ritter, Carl (1779–1859). Carl Ritter, along with Alexander von Humboldt,was one of the greatest German geographers of the nineteenth century. Manygeographers consider these two great scholars to be the founders of modern ge-ography. They represent the end of one era in geography and the beginning ofanother.

Both Ritter and von Humboldt were universal scholars. That is, they studiedand analyzed geographical aspects of a place in a holistic way. Geographerstoday tend to specialize in one area of the discipline. This is a necessary ap-proach because of the vast accumulation of information that has been added tothe geographic knowledge base over time. No longer can individual geogra-phers, or any other disciplinarian, operate as a universal scholar in the mannerof von Humboldt and Ritter. There is simply too much information available,and specialization is necessary.

It is interesting to note that both von Humboldt and Ritter died in 1859, theyear in which English naturalist Charles Darwin published his revolutionarybook on evolution. Because of Darwin, 1859 has been considered a watershedyear in intellectual history.

Ritter was a professor at a number of schools in Germany. His initial researchfocused on the earth’s influence on the course of history. Unlike a number ofhis contemporaries, Ritter stressed the importance of understanding the waysin which features on the earth are interconnected. This perspective on geo-

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graphic analysis has endured and remains abasic premise in geography today. In 1811,Ritter published a two-volume textbookon the geography of Europe.

Ritter stressed direct observation in hisfield research, and he preferred to focuson regional geography. In taking the re-gional direction in his studies, Ritter dif-fered from von Humboldt, who usedsystematic (thematic) geography in hiswork. Between 1817 and 1859, Rittercompleted 11 volumes of his most promi-nent work, Die Erdkunde. The Germanword erdkunde means “earth science,” andit is synonymous with the Greek word ge-ography. In these volumes, Ritter detailedall aspects of the regions of Africa andparts of Europe. Following his death, someof his students continued work on the se-ries with treatments of Australia andother regions in Europe. In his writing,Ritter stressed the importance of the earthas the home of man, a theme that Ameri-can geographer Yi-Fu Tuan furthered in his work on humanistic geographyin the early 1970s.

Ritter believed that the earth was created according to a master plan by ahigher power. It was only necessary, Ritter contended, to continue investi-gations of the earth and its features to eventually reveal God’s plan. Formost of his career, Ritter compiled books based on the field observations ofother geographers. He stated that his earlier fieldwork gave him the insightsto use the observations of others and craft them into valid and useful writtenworks.


Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993; George Kish, A Source Book in

Geography, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.

Rostow, Walter W. (1916–2003). Walter W. Rostow, an American eco-nomic historian, in the 1950s proposed a five-stage model of economicgrowth. The model identified and detailed the stages that a country wouldcomplete in the development of its economic system. At the time Rostowwrote his book The Stages of Economic Growth (1960), many colonies had ei-ther received their independence or were close to it. Rostow’s intention was tocompletely describe the succession of stages these countries would go thoughas their economic systems expanded.

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Carl Ritter. Source: Bettmann/CORBIS.

The model was based on research Rostow completed of 15 European coun-tries. The first stage he discussed was that of the traditional society, a hamlet orvillage generally inward looking, with a minimal economic system consistingof barter and trade in agricultural products and possibly some craft items. Theculture group relies primarily on subsistence agriculture, the gathering ofplants, hunting, and possibly fishing. There is little interaction with neighbor-ing groups.

The second stage is identified as having the preconditions for take-off. Inthis stage, a big change has occurred. Possibly a leader has emerged whosecharisma and drive stimulated a desire in the region to recognize and develop aresource and to generate a more viable economic system. The beginning maycome in the harvesting and marketing of a tree crop, such as coconuts, or theextraction and sale of a mineral ore. Outside funding is usually required tobegin such an enterprise. In any case, the business activity is set in motion andeconomic growth occurs.

The third stage is identified as take-off to sustained growth. Rostow esti-mated that 10–30 years are necessary to achieve this position. Sustainedgrowth follows a period of continued economic progress, significant increasesin business investment and savings, and the development of new industries. Inaddition, a viable manufacturing sector must be in place to handle previouslyunrecognized resources that are now exploited and brought into the productionprocess. There are most likely some regions in the country that are not yet fullydeveloped, although a few growth poles with dynamic activity are in place.

In the fourth stage, the drive to maturity, investments continue to rise, pro-ductivity increases and is sustained at high levels, and the economy expands.New industries are added to the matrix, and the latest technology is usedthroughout the economic system. Agglomeration of industrial activity occursduring this stage and the multiplier effect is operating to stimulate furthergrowth. Economic diversification is in evidence, imports are minimized as do-mestic production expands to provide a wide range of new products, and ex-ports increase as markets are found for manufactured goods. Full regionaldevelopment is achieved in this stage.

The age of mass consumption is Rostow’s fifth stage. This stage is marked bya significant increase in the production of consumer goods and an expansion ofthe service sector. Income per capita is high enough for most people to pur-chase a wide variety of personal goods. In the fifth stage, a welfare state beginsto appear as excess revenues are directed toward remedying any social problemsthat persist.

Over the years since Rostow’s book was published, a number of criticisms ofthe model have emerged. First, the model is considered to be descriptive be-cause the underlying causes behind the generation of each stage are not ex-plained. Second, critics have contended that economic growth is a continualprocess and not marked by distinct stages. Third, empirical evidence shows

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that many countries remain in Stages 1 or 2 despite input of financial assis-tance. Fourth, the model is seen as suspect because Rostow’s only precedentsfor success were the 15 European countries that had already achieved Stage 5.With this in mind, critics suggest that there is no guarantee that developingcountries will follow the same path to economic success.

Advocates of Rostow’s stage model speculate on the emergence of a sixthstage in the form of the postindustrial society present in a number of devel-oped countries. This claim is open to debate, because Rostow included a shiftto the service sector in Stage 5. Despite its flaws, Rostow’s stage model is use-ful for checking the development level of individual countries.

Suggested Readings: Gerald M. Meier and James E. Rauch, Leading Issues in Economic Devel-

opment, 7th ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2000; Arthur Morris, Geography and Devel-

opment, London: UCL Press, 1998; Walter W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth, London:Cambridge University Press, 1960.

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Sahel. The Sahel is a narrow band of land on the southern edge of the SaharaDesert in Africa, extending from the country of Western Sahara east to theSudan and northern Ethiopia. The word sahel comes from the Arabic andmeans “border” or “shore.” Hence, the Sahel has been referred to as the “shoreof the Sahara.”

The Sahel is a semiarid region of steppe and savanna grasses and scrub forest.Normal annual precipitation ranges from 10 to 20 inches. However, beginningin the 1960s, rainfall amounts have been generally lower and unusually erratic.A number of years have brought drought and famine to the region. Soils in theSahel, called aridosols, contain low levels of organic material due mainly to thecontinued drought conditions and perennial overuse by grazing animals. Sincethe mid-twentieth century, the populations of both humans and livestock havesignificantly increased, bringing greater pressure on the land. Soils have deteri-orated, and the entire region is prone to erosion.

In 1977, the United Nations Conference on Desertification convened inNairobi, Kenya. One of the key outcomes of the conference was the predictionthat the Sahel was at high risk for desertification and that the region was be-coming less productive because of the combination of drought and overuse. Percapita food production in recent decades has declined, and nomadic herdinghas all but ended in the region.

The Sahel has long been considered a marginal region for agriculture. Withincreases in human and livestock numbers and the persistent drought, the so-cioeconomic situation in the Sahel has worsened. Environmental conditionsthere are similar to those of the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s in the UnitedStates in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Years

of drought and the expansion of agriculture onto semiarid lands resulted in se-rious land degradation and the mass exodus of thousands of farm families fromthe devastated area. The Soviets experienced a similar outcome in the 1950sfollowing the failure of their Virgin Lands project, which involved the large-scale clearing of steppe vegetation in a semiarid region in order to expandwheat growing. In both of these instances, it was clear that cultivation of mar-ginal lands is a precarious undertaking.

Initial conclusions reached in the 1970s about climatic change in the Sahelsuggested that aridity was steadily increasing. However, satellite imagery gath-ered in subsequent years showed that the vegetation line fluctuated north andsouth depending on the amount of precipitation received in any given year.Nonetheless, environmental conditions in this fragile region are not improv-ing, and population growth continues at a high rate.

Suggested Readings: Alan Grainger, The Threatening Desert: Controlling Desertification, Lon-don: Earthscan Publications, 1990; Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth, Wash-ington, D.C.: World Bank, 1989.

Salinization. Stream valleys, interior basins, and low-lying areas, especially insemiarid and desert environments, are subject to salinization from the applica-tion of excessive irrigation water. Irrigation water that is left to stand on thesurface of an agricultural field quickly evaporates in a climate that is warm anddry. When the water evaporates, its salt is left in the exposed soil.

Salt accumulation in agricultural land reduces the amount of moisture thatplants can absorb through their root systems. Excessive salt retards growth andcould even kill the plants.

The problem of salinization is particularly serious in semiarid and desert soilsbecause they are generally tightly compacted and do not drain freely. Ideally, ir-rigation water should be drained away from the fields and not be allowed tostand on the surface. Effective drainage systems, however, can be quite costlybecause they require the installation of tiles and pipes to collect and divert ex-cess water to an outlet. However, even the best drainage system cannot com-pletely eliminate all salt accumulations.

Israeli agriculturalists have devised an efficient irrigation system that bothminimizes the amount of water used for crops and reduces the accumulation ofsalt in the soil. The system uses drip irrigation that is set to deliver the exactamount of water to each plant at the precise time it is needed. The Israeli dripirrigation system is costly but very efficient.

Salinization has adversely affected millions of acres of agricultural land inmany parts of the world. It is especially prominent in the arid region fromEgypt east to India. The southwestern United States has also experienced seri-ous salinization problems. The agriculturally productive Central Valley in Cal-ifornia has lost nearly 25 percent of its agricultural land to salinization fromexcess irrigation water. Even some northern regions in Saskatchewan and On-tario, Canada, have been aversely affected by salinization.

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Suggested Readings: Malin Falkenmark and Carl Widstrand, “Population and Water Re-sources: A Delicate Balance,” Population Bulletin, vol. 47 (1992); Sandra Postel, Last Oasis: Fac-

ing Water Scarcity, New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.

Sauer, Carl (1889–1975). Carl Sauer had a profound and lasting impact onAmerican geography. His work in geography was diverse, and he wrote booksand articles on a wide variety of geographicalthemes. Sauer was a tireless field-worker who be-lieved that observation of the environment andtalking with individuals knowledgeable about aplace was important in gaining time in learningabout the place and acquiring insightful informa-tion.

Sauer did his graduate work at the Universityof Chicago, in one of the most prestigious geog-raphy departments in the Midwest. He soongrew to appreciate the regional studies approachto geography introduced by French geographerPaul Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918) and othersin France. Vidal published geographical worksfrom 1891 to his death in 1918. His influentialPrinciples of Human Geography was published in1926, eight years after his death. Each region,Sauer contended, has its own distinctive land-scape that reflected the social processes andphysical changes to the area over time. One ofSauer’s most prominent writings is titled “TheMorphology of Landscape” (1925), in which hepresented his model on the derivation of a cul-tural landscape. In this model, culture is the factor that begins the process.Every social group imparts its cultural imprint on the natural landscape. Intime, this imprint produces what Sauer called a cultural landscape, which in-cludes settlement patterns, distinctive structures, transportation systems, andall the attributes of a society. In Sauer’s words, “The cultural landscape is fash-ioned from a natural landscape by a culture group.”

“The Morphology of Landscape” is of great importance because it essentiallyended the influence of environmental determinism in American geography.

Sauer spent 50 years in the geography department at the University of Cal-ifornia at Berkeley. He was a prominent cultural geographer with a great con-cern for the environment. Among his many and varied projects and researchendeavors was a compelling plea for a comprehensive land-classificationsystem. He was concerned about the practice of clear-cutting in the forestryindustry, and he wanted a system to identify resources and ensure their main-tenance.

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Carl Sauer. Source: Library of Congress.

Sauer wrote important books and articles on the origins of agriculture. Hebelieved strongly that Southeast Asia was a likely region for the developmentof agriculture because of its varied plant species. He also suggested that plantcultivation was invented in a number of different regions and that the notionof a single originating point was incorrect. He wrote about urban places andconsidered them to reflect the response of human society to the natural land-scape. He even wrote an article about gerrymandering, which refers to a reap-portionment process that greatly benefits the party in power, in which he drewattention to a particularly intriguing district of Missouri. In his article “The Ed-ucation of a Geographer,” Sauer included this statement reflecting his ideasabout fieldwork: “Locomotion should be slow, the slower the better; and shouldbe often interrupted by leisurely halts to sit on vantage points and stop at ques-tion marks.”

Suggested Readings: Martin S. Kenzer, ed., Carl O. Sauer: A Tribute, Corvallis: Oregon StateUniversity, 1987; John Leighly, ed., “Land and Life”: A Selection from the Writings of Carl Ortwin

Sauer, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969 (contains “The Morphology of Landscape,”and “The Education of a Geographer”).

Scale. The concept of scale is used in a number of ways in geography. For ex-ample, discussions may proceed on the topic of atmospheric pollution at theglobal scale, a surge of economic activity may be noted at the regional scale inSoutheast Asia, or the devastation of a tornado hitting a small town in Ne-braska might be reported at the local scale. These are all general references toparticular levels of representation without numerical bases.

Scale in cartography, however, refers to a precise measuring system. Scale inthis sense is a way of stating the relationship between a distance or area mea-surement on a map and the actual dimension in the real world. Scale tells towhat degree that portion of the earth’s surface has been reduced in order to cre-ate the map. Scale on a map may be stated in a number of ways. A simplegraphic scale, for example, would state that “one inch = 10 miles” or “one cen-timeter = 50 kilometers.” This information tells us a great deal about the rela-tionship between the map and the area being represented. In the first exampleone inch on the map is equal to 10 miles on the earth’s surface. Taking the ex-ample a step further reveals that one square inch on the map equals 100 squaremiles on the surface.

Another form of scale is called “representative fraction” or simply “rf.” An rfof 1:63,360, or 1/63,360 in fractional form, is particularly useful because it rep-resents exactly one inch to the mile. (One inch on the map is equal to 63,360inches on the earth’s surface, which is 12 inches/foot × 5280 feet/mile =63,360.) If area were considered, one square inch on the map would equal onesquare mile on the surface. So, the rf of 1:63,360 would be understood to be1:63,360 squared.

Maps are also identified as being large scale or small scale. The basis for thisdetermination is found in the rf, which is a true fraction. For example, the

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topographic map series produced by the U.S. Geological Survey comes in anumber of scales and is devoted primarily to local area coverage. One of thetopographic maps produced has a scale of 1:24,000, or 1/24,000 in fractionalform. Consider a map of Asia, for instance, that has a scale of 1:2,000,000, or1/2,000,000. Compare the numerical value of the two fractions. The topo-graphical map has the larger fractional value, therefore it is considered a large-scale map, whereas the map of Asia is a small-scale map. A large-scale mapshows a great deal of detail, but its disadvantage is that the area portrayed islimited. The small-scale map shows a much larger area but in doing so a greatdeal of detail is sacrificed. Both maps, however, generalize the areas portrayed.Generalization, along with scale and distortion, are the three attributes com-mon to all maps.

Suggested Readings: Victor Miller and Mary Westerbrook, Interpretation of Topographic Maps,

Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1989; Judith Tyner, Introduction to Thematic Cartography,

Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1992.

Secondary sector. The secondary sector in an economic system takes itemsfrom the primary sector and refines them through manufacturing or process-ing. Economists use the term form utility to describe the transformations thattake place during these operations. Individual economic functions within thesecondary sector include manufacturing, construction, public works, and utili-ties such as power companies.

Secondary-sector work is generated from items grown or extracted in the pri-mary sector. For example, fish and agricultural products are processed andpackaged for sale in the wholesale and retail marketplace. It is also common forone secondary-sector factory to provide another with items needed in the man-ufacture or processing of products. For example, fish processing and packagingrequires plastic or metal containers for the processed fish and labels for identi-fication. Other secondary-sector firms will most likely provide the containersand labels. An automobile assembly operation is very complex. Hundreds ofsecondary-sector suppliers provide all the needed components for the assemblyof automobiles. Tires, windshields, seats and seat covers, dashboard instru-ments, batteries, cables, belts, and door locks must all be supplied by outsidefirms, and the components must be on hand at precisely the time they areneeded in the assembly process.

With each step in processing or manufacturing, value is added to the prod-uct. The production of electronic parts that will be fashioned into subcompo-nents and finally assembled into handheld calculators involves a number ofcomplex steps. Each step increases the value added in the process. The makingof a basket from willow branches requires skill but only a few steps. The assem-bly of a new passenger airplane, however, is an incredibly complex process in-volving many assembly stages. The value added in each step of the processdetermines the ultimate selling price for the airplane. The basket may cost $10,but the airplane, perhaps $10 million.

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Secondary-sector activities are found primarily in the developed countries inthe Northern Hemisphere. The United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Japan,Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have traditional strongholds of sec-ondary activities. The pattern is changing, however, as transnational corpora-tions establish manufacturing centers in developing countries to take advantageof lower labor costs. In these operations, components of products are manufac-tured and then shipped to assembly points accessible to the ultimate markets forfinal sale. Some secondary-sector plants locate close to each other to gain theadvantages of economic agglomeration and the multiplier effect, both of whichcan enhance the productivity of the clustered firms.

Primary and secondary activities have declined in the number of employees,in favor of the fast-rising service sectors (see Tertiary, Quaternary, andQuinary sectors) as the economic structure in developed countries shifts to thepostindustrial economy. However, manufacturing and processing operationshave by no means experienced real declines. On the contrary, their growthcontinues to increase, although growth in the service sectors, especially infor-mation processing, increases faster.

Suggested Readings: Ian Hamilton, ed., Resources and Industry: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of

World Geography, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992; Frederick P. Stutz and Anthony R.de Souza, The World Economy: Resources, Location, Trade, and Development, 3rd ed., Upper Sad-dle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Sector model. American economist Homer Hoyt is the author of one of threeclassic models of urban land use. His sector model, published in 1939, resultedfrom his study of the structure of more than 140 American cities and was in re-sponse to criticisms of the concentric zone model developed by R. E. Park,E. W. Burgess, and R. D. McKenzie, University of Chicago sociologists, two de-cades earlier.

Hoyt’s research suggested that cities grow outward from the central busi-ness district (CBD) in wedge-shaped sectors that follow prominent roadways.The driving force in urban land use structure, according to Hoyt, is the high-income housing sector that is first established on the most attractive land nearthe CBD and in time grows outward toward open space to eventually joinhigh-income residences in the suburban area. The high-income housing sec-tor is built along scenic waterways, if present in the city, and on high ground.In addition, high-income housing follows the route of the fastest surface trans-portation corridor leading to the suburban fringe.

Adjacent to the high-income housing sector on both sides is middle-incomehousing. The low-income housing sector occupies the least-desirable land, usu-ally adjacent to areas of industry, manufacturing, and transportation marshal-ing yards.

Hoyt’s studies of American cities indicated that the Burgess concentric zonemodel was basically incorrect. Hoyt noted, for instance, that in many caseshousing districts extended from the edge of the CBD to the city limits and thatthey were not found in concentric zones.

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Hoyt and Burgess both used Chicago to illustrate their models. Burgess con-tended that the concentric zonation of Chicago was consistent except where itwas broken in the east by Lake Michigan. Hoyt, on the other hand, pointed outthat the high-income housing sector extended from the CBD north along LakeMichigan and that the industrial sector followed the railroad and highway linessouth along Lake Michigan and extended to the steelmaking plants in Gary,Indiana.

Hoyt’s model came 20 years after Burgess’s and was more complex. Two de-cades after Hoyt’s model was published, American geographers Chauncey Har-ris and Edward Ullman introduced an even more complex model. Theirmultiple-nuclei model of urban land use reflected changes in the post–WorldWar II configuration of American cities and the decline in dominance of theCBD.

Suggested Readings: Phillip Kivell, Land and the City; Patterns and Processes of Urban Change,

London: Routledge, 1993; Maurice Yeates, The North American City, 5th ed., New York: Long-man, 1997.

Sense of place. There are at least two distinct meanings for the concept “senseof place.” First, there is the immediate association that people make withprominent natural and human-made features. In the United States, NiagaraFalls is a well-known setting for honeymooners, and it is known far and wide byindividuals even they have not visited it. Mount Fuji in Japan evokes a highemotional response from the Japanese people. The same sense of awe is at-tached to Lake Baikal in Siberia, a place that is held in high reverence by peo-ple in Russia.

The Brooklyn Bridge, Saint Basil’s Church in Moscow, and the SydneyOpera House are all universally identifiable human-made structures that evokea compelling sense of place. Emotional responses ran high following the delib-erate destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City onSeptember 11, 2001. The loss of life in the attack was, of course, inordinatelytragic, and the obliteration of the buildings, known worldwide, struck an emo-tional chord in millions of people.

Sense of place also applies to associations with places that have personal sig-nificance to people. The place may be a park or playground enjoyed as a child.Or it may be a particular room in one’s home, a place of safety and solitude.Someone raised on a farm may have developed a strong sense of place for theentire expanse of agricultural fields, the barns and work sheds, and even an oldwindmill. Clearly, sense of place evokes a strong emotional connection thatmay arouse feelings about the place long after the individual has moved away.Sense of place implies an intimacy with the structures or physical features thatoccupy the setting. The prominent American cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan,published from the 1960s to the present, uses the term topophilia, suggestingan emotional tie with place, in his writings on humanistic geography.

Some writers on the subject, leading American nature writer Barry Lopezamong them, express concern that Americans may be losing their sense of

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place because they are no longer as close to the physical environment as theirancestors were. Lopez suggests that intimacy with a local setting, a necessaryaspect of developing a true sense of place, seems not to be as strong in Ameri-cans as it was in years past. If Lopez is correct, then it seems that people are, insome ways, looking away from their physical setting. For example, road tripsusing the interstate highways set us apart from the terrain we travel through.No longer are we coursing down narrow two-lane roads where we can almostreach out and touch the landscape. A trip on a scheduled airline at 37,000-footaltitudes distances us from the land below. Some features are recognizable, butthere is a detachment that separates us from the physical features. This was notthe case in decades past, when the old DC-3s would fly over the terrain at7,000 to 10,000 feet; close enough to note physical and cultural features in de-tail.

Suggested Readings: R. J. Johnston et al., The Dictionary of Human Geography, 2nd ed., Ox-ford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1986; Barry Lopez, “The American Geographies,” Orion Magazine,

autumn 1989; Yi-Fu Tuan, “Space and Place: Humanistic Perspective,” in Human Geography: An

Essential Anthology, ed. John Agnew et al., Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1996.

Settlement. The term settlement has wide application in geography. In onesense it refers to the original occupation of a new area. For example, when theRussians built the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow east to the PacificOcean, new settlements quickly began to grow up along the course of the greatrail line. Settlement also refers to the places, large and small, in which peoplealready live. A simple dwelling in a remote area of northwestern China is a set-tlement. By contrast, the booming metropolis of Seoul, South Korea, is also asettlement.

Urban settlements within a region vary in size from tiny villages to the pri-mate city. There is regularity in the hierarchical nesting of urban places thatbecame the basis for Christaller’s central place theory and the derivation ofthe rank-size rule.

Some individual settlements are associated with a dominant function foundthere. Rochester, Minnesota, is world-famous because of the Mayo Clinic. SanJose, California, is one of the most prominent computer centers in the world.Las Vegas brings to mind casinos, nightclubs, posh hotels, and entertainment.New York City is the world headquarters for hundreds of corporations. Mega-lopolis, the term for the settlement stretching from Boston to Washington,D.C., is a dynamic and densely packed region whose single greatest export isdecisions.

There are college towns, mining towns, and urban places where manufactur-ing predominates. Settlements of ethnic concentrations are found withintowns and cities, and within regions of a country. All of these groupings are ex-amples of settlements.

A number of settlement forms have been identified and classified. In therural area, dispersed settlements are generally the rule. This settlement pattern

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shows individual farm sites spread out across the landscape. Dispersed settle-ments are contrasted with the nucleated settlement, which is identified by atight clustering of residences in a small area within the larger rural setting.

A dry-point settlement is found on high ground within a region of ampleprecipitation. A wet-point settlement is found in an area that has a guaranteedwater supply. A squatter settlement contains people who are occupying landthey do not own. Many of the residents may be refugees from their own coun-try, to which they cannot safely return. Squatter settlements, found mainly inthe developing countries, collectively contain millions of people. Squatter set-tlements are a dominant factor in the urbanization of the developing world.

Suggested Readings: Allan G. Noble, ed., To Build in a New Land: Ethnic Landscapes in North

America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992; Mathew J. Shumway and Richard H.Jackson, “Native American Population Patterns,” Geographical Review, vol. 85 (1995).

Shatter belt. A country or group of countries strategically located within thespheres of influence of larger and competing countries has been referred to as ashatter belt. As a result of the pressures brought to bear on shatter belt coun-tries, it is not uncommon to find economic development problems and politi-cal instability within their borders. There may well be boundary disputeswithin a shatter belt region as pressures for dominance is exerted by the largercompeting states.

Poland was a shatter belt country during both World Wars by virtue of its lo-cation between the often-competing countries of Germany and Russia. Therehave been frequent boundary changes in Poland over the years as a result ofthese pressures. Southeast Asia has also been characterized as a shatter belt.The region is culturally diverse and is physically dissected. These conditionsmade it prone to takeover by European powers during the era of colonialismduring the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, associated with Europeanoccupation of parts of Southeast Asia.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the African country of Angola was the centerof a struggle between Soviet and American forces battling for control of thecountry. Angola was subjected to external pressures as the two superpowers en-gaged in a proxy war to exert their influence and gain control in the region.

Perhaps the most serious and long-lasting shatter belt is the Middle East. Foryears the region has experienced strong political pressures from both internaland external origins. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991 brought a swift and de-cisive military response from the United States and its coalition forces. Thestruggle between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Authority and othercountries in the region has been ongoing since Israel was declared a sovereignstate in 1948. Pressures from outside the region exacerbate the turmoil as suchpowerful countries as the United States and Russia exert their influence inMiddle Eastern affairs.

The term shatter belt or shatter zone has often been applied to the Eastern Eu-ropean countries during the cold war. These countries, members of the Warsaw

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Pact, comprised a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and the opposingforces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Suggested Readings: Kevin Hewison et al., eds., Southeast Asia in the 1990s: Authoritarianism,

Democracy and Capitalism, St. Leonard’s, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1993; I. Griffiths,The Atlas of African Affairs, 2nd ed., Johannesburg, South Africa: Witwatersrand UniversityPress, 1995.

Shifting cultivation. See Extensive agriculture.

Site. The physical features of a place that were important considerations in itsinitial selection as a settlement are called site factors. Before the era of rail-roads and highways, urban places were routinely sited on the banks of naviga-ble rivers. The site factors of immediate importance is these instances werehigh ground to avoid flooding and a gentle slope to ensure accessibility to theriver for transportation.

Site has been characterized as representing a vertical location factor. That is,the focus in site selection is limited to the physical terrain that supports the es-tablishment of a viable settlement. Site is coupled with the concept of situa-tion, in which consideration is made for the location of the place within itslarger areal context. In the previous example, site factors were used to locatethe place on a navigable river. A situational factor would identify, for instance,that the river location provides access to a local forest and to the possibility ofestablishing a lumber processing operation. The river also connects the placewith other settlements.

A place may be sited near arable land that could provide the basis for agri-cultural activity. Situation, then, considers the location of a place in referenceto other physical and cultural attributes within its area. For this reason, situa-tion is identified as a horizontal location factor.

The site factors for St. Louis, Missouri, located on high ground near the con-fluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers provides an ideal example of theway site and situation are simultaneously considered and how they work to-gether. The site provides the physical base for the settlement, including accessto the rivers. The situational factors link St. Louis to other settlements alongthe rivers and help to explain why the city became important as a port.

Site factors may change in time. As urban places grow in population andnumber of functions, more room may be needed to accommodate the addi-tional activities. Such prominent metropolitan centers as New York City,Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Seoul, South Korea’s port city of Inchon have for yearsreclaimed land from the sea in order to extend their physical limits. The bor-ough of Manhattan in New York City has been extended to the south a num-ber of times to gain more land. Battery Park City and the World Trade Centertwin towers were built on reclaimed land. Tokyo Bay is fast being filled in asthe demand for more land continues to increase in this bustling metropolitancenter. Estimates of the rate of land reclamation in Tokyo Bay suggest that

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within a few decades only enough of the bay will remain to ensure ship naviga-tion in and out of the important port facilities.

Suggested Readings: Edward L. Ayers et al., All over the Map: Rethinking American Regions,

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995; Arild Holt-Jensen, Geography: Its History and

Concepts, 2nd ed., Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1988.

Situation. The concept of situation is used in geography to identify the physi-cal and cultural attributes within close proximity to the location of a place. Sit-uation has been characterized as the horizontal location factor, whereas itscounterpart, site, is considered a vertical location factor. Site factors identifythe immediate physical features that were important in the initial selection ofthe place as a settlement. The situation of a settlement identifies cultural andphysical attributes within its local area. For example, the site factors forChicago include the land on which it was built, close proximity to the south-ern end of Lake Michigan, and the presence of a river flowing through it.Chicago’s situation reflects the potential economic gain from commerce onLake Michigan, the city’s access to rich agricultural land in Wisconsin and Illi-nois, and the city’s accessibility to other settlements within its immediate re-gion and beyond by long-distance transportation systems.

Site reflects the internal physical characteristics of the place. Situation re-flects its external physical and cultural relationships of significance to the eco-nomic and social well-being of the settlement. Shanghai, China, was a sleepylittle fishing village until the British chose the settlement for an administrativecenter in the nineteenth century. Since that time, Shanghai has grown to be-come a world-class metropolitan center. The site factor of importance toShanghai is its location at the mouth of the Chang (Yangtze) River. Its situa-tional setting locates it on China’s only major river deep enough to allowoceangoing vessels to travel inland. Shanghai has become important as a ship-ping point and as China’s foremost economic and technology developmentcenter. It also plays a key role in the expanding free-trade zone extending up-river to Chongqing. Economic development in this region of China is expand-ing rapidly and will continue to do so when the Three-Gorges Project iscompleted. This project will allow oceangoing vessels to move beyond the pre-vious terminus at Wuhan, 600 miles from Shanghai, to Chongqing, another600 miles to the west. The extension of navigation for ships will change the sit-uational setting in a positive way for the economy of Shanghai.

Another example from China illustrates how situation can change. Beforeits reincorporation within China, Hong Kong was one of the economic power-houses known as the Asian Tigers and operated as a successful economic cen-ter on the Pacific Coast. Only a few miles from Hong Kong, in China proper, isthe city of Guangzhou. Over the years, this city benefited from its close prox-imity to Hong Kong, and its fortunes increased when Hong Kong reverted toChinese control. In the case of Guangzhou, a situational change through ageopolitical action resulted in an economic boom for the city.

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Situational changes occurred in the formative years on the East Coast of theUnited States. For a few years, Newport, Rhode Island, was a major port city.As settlements increased in number, Boston and then Philadelphia became theleading ports. However, once New York City established its port facility anddeveloped its connections to the interior by way of the Hudson-Mohawk De-pression, it became the dominant port on the East Coast, a position it holds tothis day.

Suggested Readings: Michael P. Conzen, “The Progress of American Urbanization, 1860–1930,” in The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent, ed. Robert T. Mitchell et al., Savage,Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990; Truman A. Hartshorn, Interpreting the City: An Urban Geog-

raphy, 2nd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1990.

Slash and burn agriculture. See Extensive agriculture.

Smog. Excessive amounts of automobile and truck exhausts combined withultraviolet radiation from sunlight causes gaseous reactions that result insmog. The term smog, which derives from the words smoke and fog, is a mis-nomer. Nonetheless, it is used to refer to photochemical air pollution. Carbonmonoxide and hydrocarbons from vehicular exhaust systems, when acted onby sunlight, produce nitrogen dioxide, nitric acid, and ozone, all of which areinjurious to the health of humans and plant life.

A second form of smog comes from accumulations of sulfur dioxide, carbondioxide, and particulate matter spewed into the atmosphere from industrialsmoke. Both forms of smog are most prevalent in urban places because of thehigh concentrations of automobiles, trucks, and industrial plants.

Smog is particularly dangerous to people with any form of respiratory illness.If the concentration of smog is heavy enough for a long period of time it cancause serious injury and even death to those most susceptible to its ill effects.The Black Smog incident in Donora, Pennsylvania, in 1948 resulted in thedeath of 20 people and the hospitalization of hundreds more. Sulfur dioxideemitted over a five-day period from a zinc processing plant changed to sulfurtrioxide, a substance that adversely affects the respiratory system. The severityof the Donora episode was increased by the presence of an atmospheric inver-sion caused by a cell of high-pressure air suspended over Donora. The inversiontrapped the noxious fumes over the city, and the problem was not alleviateduntil the weather system changed and welcome rains came to clear the air.

Inversions are common over the Los Angeles basin. This is one reason whyLos Angeles is called the smog capital of America. In addition to the cell ofhigh-pressure air over Los Angeles, mountains to the east block the prevailingwesterly winds from carrying the smog away from the basin. Even before Span-ish and western European settlers came to the region, Los Angeles was knownto the American Indian inhabitants as the valley of smoke.

Mexico City, Mexico, is another metropolitan area that has an enormoussmog problem. The city frequently experiences smog accumulation because of

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atmospheric inversions and its location in a valley, the walls of which trap andhold the smog. The problem is so serious at times in the winter season thatschools have been closed for from four to six weeks and people are told to stayat home rather than risk illness from the noxious air. See also Pollution.

Suggested Readings: Derek Elson, Atmospheric Pollution: A Global Problem, 2nd ed., Cam-bridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1992; Ian D. Whyte, Climatic Change and Human Society, NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.

Social geography. The subdiscipline of social geography centers on three areasof concern. First, consideration of the well-being of the poor and disenfran-chised members of society has emerged, especially since the late 1960s andearly 1970s. Second, there has been considerable criticism of the capitalist sys-tem because it allegedly breeds and maintains socioeconomic inequity, both atthe country and global levels. Third, the ideas and thoughts of those in povertyhave been largely ignored, and some social geographers contend that the viewsof the socially disadvantaged are just as valid as those of more-affluent mem-bers of society.

Social geography is a recent addition to the discipline and has been officiallyrecognized since the mid-1950s. At times, the field of social geography hasbeen synonymous with urban geography because the problems it deals with aremost often found in cities. Its roots go back to the early years of the twentiethcentury and the successful challenge to environmental determinism, a chargeled by French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blache, with his philosophy of pos-sibilism. Environmental determinism held the view that the physical environ-ment determined the actions of the culture group living in that setting.Possibilism contended that the environment was an influence on behavior butthat humans could create their own lifestyle within their physical setting withthe help of technology and their own ingenuity. The possibilist perspective washumane, and it opened the door to a balanced view of human–environment in-teractions. People were seen as having greater choice in managing their liveswithin the physical environment.

The modern era in social geography dates to the mid-1960s, a time of radicalsocial change in the United States and other countries. Protests over U.S. in-volvement in the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson’s war on povertyand his expansive legislation on social justice, and the student revolts in Paristhat toppled the French government were only a few of the key events in thatmomentous decade.

The year 1968 was particularly significant for both the country and geogra-phy. In that year, riots took place at the Democratic National Convention inChicago. Police brutality was alleged, and the convention was disrupted. Thefollowing year, the annual meeting of the Association of American Geogra-phers was scheduled to be held in Chicago but was moved to Ann Arbor,Michigan, in protest against the actions in Chicago one year earlier. At theAnn Arbor meeting, attendees were presented with studies of the social condi-

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tions in the city of Detroit. These revelations further inflamed many geogra-phers, who demanded that the country and the discipline do more to addresssevere social problems and enhance human-welfare programs.

Social geography today focuses on (1) the patterns of social activity andproblem areas, especially in cities, and (2) the processes that result in povertyand the decline of socioeconomic systems.

Suggested Readings: Peter Jackson, Race and Racism: Essays in Social Geography, London:Allen & Unwin, 1987; Paul A. Jargowsky, “Beyond the Street Corner: The Hidden Diversity ofHigh Poverty Neighborhoods,” Urban Geography, vol. 17 (1996); R. J. Johnston et al., eds., The

Dictionary of Human Geography, 2nd ed., Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1986.

Soil. Soil is a complex and dynamic mixture of rock debris, organic material,inorganic minerals, living organisms (worms and insects), air, and water. Soil isdynamic in nature because it is continually being formed as rock material dis-integrates from physical and chemical weathering and organic material decaysand decomposes into what is called humus. A balance must be maintained be-tween the amount of new soil being formed and losses from soil erosion. Everyyear, tons of rich topsoil are eroded from agricultural fields by rainfall and wind.In some regions, the amount of soil lost from erosion exceeds that gained fromreplacement. This is especially true of regions undergoing long-term droughtconditions, such as the Sahel, in Africa. During periods of drought, not asmuch plant growth occurs and less organic material is made available for theformation of new soil. Also, dry and parched soil is prone to be carried away bywinds. If these conditions persist in a semiarid region for a long enough time,desertification may occur.

In most soils, a distinct vertical zonation is present. There are three basiczones in soil. The first is called the “A” horizon. It is the zone that contains thelargest amount of organic material and is the richest for plant growth. “A” hori-zon soils are dark in color and vary in thickness from several inches to as muchas a few feet. The “A” horizon has also been called the organic horizon becauseit clearly is the most active and fertile layer. The “B” horizon is lighter in colorand consists of clay, minerals, and some organic material. It is much less pro-ductive for plant growth. The “C” horizon is the upper surface of the underly-ing bedrock; it consists of broken rock mixed with clay and contains very littleorganic material.

Soil composition in any given area is reflective of the climate. For example,desert climates are not conducive to lush plant growth. The soil in desert cli-mates is called aridisol; it is sandy and light in color and contains little, if any,organic material. On the other hand, the rich and productive agricultural soilsof the midwestern United States and the Fertile Triangle in Russia andUkraine are dark in color and abundant in the nutrients necessary for large-scale farming. These soils are called molisols; they have formed naturally overthe years beneath extensive grass cover.

In recent years, large sections of the tropical rain forest have been cleared fora variety of economic purposes. In addition to the demand for exotic tropical

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woods, there were schemes to use the cleared land for grazing livestock and forfarming. The soils in the tropical rain forests do not lend themselves to thegrowing of grass or to other agricultural pursuits. The primary reason for thislies in the makeup of the soil. There is no real “A” horizon present, and the soilitself is essentially infertile. The natural vegetation in the tropical rain forest isthe towering trees that have root systems that capture decaying material atground level. Consequently, the soil does not develop a layer of rich nutrientsthat new grasses or other agricultural plants can use. In order to make thesesoils productive once the giant trees have been cleared, a big investment in fer-tilizers, pesticides, and machine tilling is required. Without these expensive ad-ditions, the soil of the cleared rain forest is essentially useless.

Suggested Readings: Robert W. Christopherson, Geosystems: An Introduction to Physical Geog-

raphy, 3rd ed., Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997; Steve Ellis and Tony Mellor, Soils

and Environment, New York: Routledge, 1995; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Taxonomy,

Agricultural Handbook no. 436, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975.

Soil erosion. The loss of valuable topsoil through erosion processes has beencalled the quiet crisis, and it is an environmental problem of global propor-tions. Wind, rainfall, snowmelt, and any number of human disruptions to theearth’s surface can result in the loss of topsoil. It is true that new topsoil formsfrom decaying plant material and its absorption within the surface layer. How-ever, the rate of loss of topsoil generally exceeds that of natural regeneration.Some estimates of soil loss indicate that the earth is losing up to 7 percent of itsrich topsoil every 10 years, and this rate has been on the rise in recent years.

Soil erosion is a natural process; it occurs even if humans are not present.However, soil erosion increases dramatically when the natural vegetative coveris removed and the land is readied for agriculture. When land is cleared, windand rainfall remove more of the soil than they would if the natural vegetationwere still in place. It is perhaps ironic that the land-use practice of agriculturethat is reliant on soil actually hastens the loss of that precious resource.

Another human-induced cause of soil erosion is overgrazing by cattle. Notonly is erosion increased, but the following year less grass cover will be present.This is another example of the way eliminating vegetative cover increases thedegree of soil erosion.

Soil erosion in the agricultural sector can lead to lower yields of crops andincreased silting in streams and rivers. Some U.S. agricultural regions have lostup to 70 percent of their topsoil to erosion. Yet, there is increased pressure onfarmers to produce more food.

Because of a global population increase and the need for more food, farmersare moving agricultural production onto steeper slopes on previously avoidedmarginal land (see Terracing). In some instances, the soil regenerative practiceof allowing a field to renew itself by keeping it out of crops for a year or more isbeing abandoned under the pressure for increased food production.

A pointed example of severe soil erosion is seen in the tragedy of the topicalrain forests of South America. Vast expanses of rain forest were cleared for agri-

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culture and grazing only to find that the thin topsoil was essentially infertilewithout the addition of expensive fertilizers and pesticides. An added bit ofirony was revealed when areas cleared for agriculture and grazing were aban-doned and the rain forest vegetation would not regenerate in the areas wherelush trees once stood. Soil erosion is unquestionably one of the modern world’smost serious problems.

Suggested Readings: Lester R. Brown and Edward C. Wolf, Soil Erosion: Quiet Crisis in the

World Economy, Worldwatch Paper no. 60, Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1984; Ju-dith Getis, You CAN Make a Difference: Help Protect the Earth, 2nd ed., Dubuque, Iowa:WCB/McGraw-Hill, 1999.

Space. Geographers use the term space in an absolute manner. That is, refer-ence may be made to the space occupied by any physical entity: an automobile,a person, a metropolitan center, an agricultural field, or an aircraft carrier.Space used in this way is objective; it is used to define the physical dimensionsof objects. Relative space, on the other hand, is not objective but is constantlychanging. Relative space is reflective of the actions and intentions of the per-son operating within it. For example, people have their own activity space, thearea within which their normal daily activities take place. In addition, eachperson has a personal space around the body, an area that if penetrated causesdiscomfort.

Geography has often been described as a spatial science (see QuantitativeRevolution). Geographers have contended for decades that the discipline isunique in its emphasis on the spatial aspects of human activities. From an earlypoint in the history of modern geography, prominent scholars saw geography asthe discipline that studied the spatial aspects of the interface between natureand culture (see Geography).

The eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant consideredspace to be represented by geography and time by history. Kant taught at theuniversity in Konigsburg from 1755 to 1797. Among his courses was one onphysical geography, which he taught for 41 years, and his views on geography,space, and time influenced the formation of the discipline.

Geography is a dynamic discipline. It deals with entities that change andinteract. Spatial interaction is a key theme in geography. No place exists inand of itself. Places are affected by events occurring in other settings. For ex-ample, advancements in transportation technology have resulted in a kind ofcompression of time and space. Places have been brought closer together, so tospeak, and the degree of accessibility between places has increased signifi-cantly. When the fifteenth-century Italian explorer Christopher Columbussailed to the Western Hemisphere, his first voyage took 38 days. Years later,the American aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh flew a single-engine air-plane from the East Coast of the United States to Paris in about 33 hours.Today, a scheduled airline flight from London to New York City takes only afew hours. Our ability to negotiate space in shorter time frames seems com-monplace.

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The twentieth-century American geographer Yi-Fu Tuan makes a distinc-tion between space and place in his writings on humanistic geography. Ac-cording to Tuan, space is undifferentiated, whereas place has a familiaritygained from personal experiences within it. Space is timeless, but place has ahistory.

Suggested Readings: Stanley Brunn and Thomas Leinbach, Collapsing Space and Time: Geo-

graphic Aspects of Communication and Information, Winchester, Mass.: Unwin Hyman, 1991; R. J.Johnston et al., eds., The Dictionary of Human Geography, 2nd ed., Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell,1986; Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, Minneapolis: University of Min-nesota Press, 1977.

Spatial interaction. Places and regions are interdependent; they do not func-tion alone. The geographic term that reflects this interdependence is spatial in-teraction, a concept introduced in the 1950s by the eminent Americangeographer Edward Ullman. In an important article that detailed aspects ofspatial interaction (see Intervening opportunity), Ullman contended that theconcept was comparable in importance to the theme of human–environmentinteraction.

Spatial interaction assumes a system of places and regions within which adegree of connectivity exists. Goods are shipped from one place to another,people travel to places near and far, and ideas are sent by mail, fax, telephone,and computer. All of these activities further assume that a degree of accessibil-ity exists. That is, goods cannot be shipped if there is no way to transport them,and people cannot travel to a place that will not accept them for political rea-sons.

These examples suggest the presence of barriers to spatial interaction, andthere are a number of them. Distance can be a barrier, especially to the physi-cal movement of people and goods. Generally there is a greater degree of spa-tial interaction if the distance to negotiate is shorter (see Distance decay).Physical impediments may reduce the degree of spatial interaction betweenplaces. For several decades during the colonial period, settlement in theUnited States was limited to the eastern seaboard because the AppalachianMountains blocked further westward movement. However, with advances intechnology and new transportation systems, physical barriers are no longer asimposing.

Political barriers can impede spatial interaction. Some countries have estab-lished rigid restrictions on entry, and others have discouraged the importationof certain goods by setting high tariffs. Language can also be a barrier to spatialinteraction. If two parties cannot communicate, there is little likelihood thatbusiness can be conducted. Along a number of international borders, a linguafranca that incorporates words and phrases from two or more languages hasbeen established to break the communications barrier.

During the Quantitative Revolution in American geography during thelate 1950s through mid-1960s, models and quantitative techniques were de-veloped to precisely measure the spatial interaction between urban places.

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The so-called gravity model used a simple formula to predict the degree ofinteraction that would occur between urban places of various sizes within aregion.

A great body of literature has accumulated in the last 50 years on theconcept of diffusion in its many forms. Pioneered by twentieth-centurySwedish geographer Torsten Hagerstrand, the diffusion concept is perhaps thesingle most prominent and widely applied aspect of spatial interaction.

Suggested Readings: Reginald G. Golledge and Robert J. Stimson, Decision Making and Spatial

Behavior: A Geographic Perspective, New York: Guilford Press, 1966; Nigel Thrift, Spatial Forma-

tions, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1996.


Squatter settlement. High rates of natural increase and steady rural-to-urbanmigration in Africa, Asia, and Latin America continues to overwhelm the hostcities. People are arriving in urban areas in numbers that far exceed availablehousing to accommodate them. The result of this mass movement has been thecreation of squatter settlements on the fringes of the cities. Migrants occupyunused private or governmentally owned property as a last resort.

Squatter settlements normally have no services, such as electricity, potablewater, sewage systems, health care facilities, or schools. If the residents persistin staying in a settlement and the officials do not evict them, improvementsmay be added and makeshift huts replaced by more substantial structures. Intime, more services may be added.

The presence of squatter settlements in great numbers throughout the devel-oping world is another indication of the low levels of socioeconomic develop-ment and inadequate infrastructure that marks this region. United Nationsstudies indicate that in 2000 nearly 40 percent of all urban residents in theworld lived in squatter settlements. If this estimate is correct, more than onebillion people, 18 percent of the world’s population, live in squatter settle-ments. This is an astounding figure, and the number certainly will increase asmore people leave the desolation of rural areas in hopes of finding a better lifein the cities.

During the Vietnam War, millions of hamlet-dwelling South Vietnamesepeople were uprooted from the rural areas and relocated in the cities of Saigonand Danang for safety reasons. The people were very poor, and most could notafford to rent existing housing. Squatter settlements began to appear on thefringes of Danang, with structures made from discarded pieces of wood, card-board, and corrugated metal. The main road leading out of Danang to thenorth included a one-mile segment that became known as garbage road. Dis-placed Vietnamese could be found daily rummaging through the debrisdropped on both sides of the road. They sought out anything that could be use-ful in building or repairing a dwelling. Even scraps of food would be taken ifthey could be found. The refuse piles, some reaching 12 feet in height, were the

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deposits of garbage and trash primarily from the military bases in the Danangarea, transported there by Vietnamese trash collectors.

Squatter settlements have different names in each region. They are calledfavellas in Brazil, barriadas in Peru, bustees in India, and kampongs in Malaysia.

Suggested Readings: Alan Gilbert and Josef Gugler, Cities, Poverty and Development: Urban-

ization in the Third World, 2nd ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1992; United NationsCenter for Human Settlements, An Urbanizing World: Global Report on Human Settlements, NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Stimulus diffusion. See Expansion diffusion.

Strabo (ca. 64 B.C.–ca. A.D. 25). The Greek geographer Strabo’s Geographica,his only extant writing, is a valuable collection of geographical knowledge be-cause of its breadth of coverage and its mention of Greek sources no longeravailable. Strabo was a great chronicler who summarized the works of otherscholars. His work mentions other prominent researchers and writers from theGreek poet Homer onward, and he provides a detailed description of the ec-umene, the habitable world as known to the Greeks.

Strabo accepted Aristotle’s zones of habitability as summarized by Eratos-thenes. However, he did not agree with Eratosthenes on his determination of thecircumference of the earth, a measurement that proved to be remarkably accu-rate. Instead he followed Posidonius, whose circumferential measurement was in-correct. Strabo correctly concluded that flooding of the Nile River resulted fromthe maximum summer rainfall in Ethiopia. Earlier, Herodotus theorized that thechanging levels of water on the Nile were due to winds that blew the sun south-ward in the winter, drawing the river waters with it. When the winds abated inthe spring, the sun could again travel northward, and the Nile water followed.This was, of course, a false theory. But it did reflect the important approach ofprocess analysis, the consideration of actions and events through time.

Strabo’s Geographica was not used extensively when it was first made avail-able. Its value was realized centuries later when interest in the classical worldrevived. Strabo could be called a field geographer because he traveled widely inthe known world, he gathered information about the places he visited, and hewrote accurate descriptions of his observations. Geographica is composed of 17volumes. Strabo also completed written reports for military commanders andgovernment officials. He has been called a writer of practical geography be-cause his work was used in ongoing administrative activities.

In Geographica, Strabo discussed the general aspects of geography and re-ferred to it as a science that was of concern to philosophers. He discussed theecumene at length and wrote of changes on the earth’s surface, a good exampleof process investigation. Strabo explained volcanoes and discussed the mathe-matical and physical principles of geography. Like other scholars in classicaltimes, he speculated on the extent of the habitable world and on the climaticzones: the so-called torrid, temperate, and frigid zones.

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Strabo also used the regional approach in his writing. He detailed the geo-graphical features of India, the Alps, the Iberian Peninsula, the Dead Sea, Ara-bia, and Egypt. He also completed an extensive historical work that was lost.


Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993; George Sarton, A History of Sci-

ence: Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C., Cambridge: Harvard Univer-sity Press, 1959; George Kish, A Source Book in Geography Cambridge: Harvard University Press,1978.

Subsistence agriculture. Individual farm families, extended families, and en-tire settlements engage in subsistence agriculture when the producers consumemost or all of the food that is produced. Subsistence agriculture is a commonpractice in countries of the developing world. Pure subsistence agriculturemeans that no surplus remains and all the food produced is consumed by thegrowers. Usually, a small surplus of food is available for barter or sale in a peri-odic market.

Subsistence agriculture has regional variations. Extensive subsistence agri-culture is found in the Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, and to a lesser extent inSoutheast Asia (see Extensive agriculture). This form of subsistence agricul-ture includes nomadic herding and shifting cultivation. In both cases, largeareas of land are used in the production process. Intensive subsistence agricul-ture is found primarily in South, East, and Southeast Asia (see Intensive agri-culture). In these places, farming is geared toward maximizing the amount offood produced on a limited area of land. In climates where the growing seasonis long, double-cropping of plants is possible. Two crops of rice can be producedin one year in warm, moist regions, or as an alternative, one planting of ricefollowed by a vegetable.

The amount of surplus food produced in a subsistence agricultural systemvaries from year to year, depending on environmental changes and the numberof people that must be fed. In recent decades, population growth in the devel-oping countries has been significantly high in a number of world regions. Withthe increased numbers has come the need for more food. Many regions havereached their environmental carrying capacity and have been unable to pro-duce sufficient quantities of food for their growing numbers.

Subsistence agriculture has been practiced for hundreds of years throughoutthe developing world. The practice has successfully maintained the fertility ofthe soil through countless generations. However, in recent decades the abilityof this agricultural system to provide all the food needed has been limited bydrought, soil erosion, and population growth. Africa south of the SaharaDesert is a worst-case example: although total food production has increasedsignificantly in the last several decades, food production per capita has de-clined.

Subsistence agriculture does not normally involve large numbers of livestock(except, of course, for nomadic herding). In a number of large cities in the de-

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veloping world, urban agriculture is being practiced. Individuals or groups ofagriculturalists intensively cultivate unused land within cities for their ownconsumption and for sale or exchange in local markets.

Suggested Readings: Tim Dyson, Population and Food: Global Trends and Future Prospects,

New York: Routledge, 1996; Uma Lele, Population Pressure, the Environment, and Agricultural In-

tensification, Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1989.

Suburbia. The suburbs are separate governmental units within an urban area,and they are usually contiguous with the central city. Suburban developmentrepresents a transfer of land over a several-year period from rural to urban. Sub-urbs originally developed as residential areas within commuting distance toemployment, retail activity, and entertainment within the city. The majorburst in suburban growth took place following World War II, when members ofthe military services returned home and a civilian consumer economy was re-instated. Within a year following the end of the war, the so-called baby boombegan, and with it came a surge in new home construction in the emerging sub-urbs. Adequate transportation systems allowed suburban dwellers to live onthe urban fringes and have accessibility to workplaces in the city.

As the number of suburbanites increased, retailers began to relocate theirbusinesses to the suburbs to be close to their customers. Manufacturing plantsalso began to relocate to the suburbs, where both lower-cost land and the op-portunity for expansion could be found. The 1960 census pointed out that bythe end of the 1950s employment in manufacturing was evenly split betweenlocations in central cities and suburbs.

Rapid growth of suburbia in many regions has led to urban sprawl, the phys-ical expansion of the developed area of urban centers far beyond the centralbusiness district (CBD). Such metropolitan centers in the United States asAtlanta, Houston, the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul), and, of course,Los Angeles have experienced extraordinary suburban growth. Some urbanplaces can boast of a first ring of suburbs, a second, and even a third, as growthcontinues outward from the center. Many large metropolitan areas now havesettlements expanding beyond suburbia to the exurban ring, a zone beyond thebuilt-up area and marking the rural–urban fringe. Like the suburban expansiondecades earlier, the exurbs are commuter zones made possible by improvementsin surface transportation systems, which have greatly increased accessibilitywithin the greater metropolitan area and allowed it to expand. It is not un-common in the early twenty-first century to see suburbanites commuting fromone suburb to another for work and shopping. Edge cities have grown up alongthe interstate beltways encircling metropolitan centers. Edge cites contain vir-tually all of the functions needed by suburban residents.

The continued growth of suburbia has drawn business activity away from theoriginal CBD and has reduced the tax base in the central cites of many metro-politan areas. It is estimated that in the 1990s twice as many people movedfrom central cities to suburbs than from suburbs to central cities. This imbal-

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ance is true despite the recent gentrification of some neighborhoods close tothe CBD.

The attraction of people to the suburbs seems not to be lessening. Althoughcommuting distances in suburbia are usually greater than in the central cities,the lower population densities, larger residential lot sizes, plentiful job oppor-tunities, newness of the areas, and the presence of expansive shopping and en-tertainment centers continue to draw new residents.

Suggested Readings: Paul L. Knox, Urbanization: An Introduction to Urban Geography, Engle-wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1994; John C. Teaford, Post-Suburbia: Government and Politics in

the Edge Cities, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996; Joseph S. Wood, “Suburban-ization of the Center City,” Geographical Review, vol. 78 (1988).

Suitcase farmer. The suitcase farmer is an agricultural manager who owns sev-eral farms but does not have a residence on any of them. According to one def-inition, the suitcase farmer lives at least 30 miles from the closest landholding.A variation on the term is sidewalk farmer, one who lives within an urbanplace. The suitcase farmer owns several agricultural holdings for two importantreasons. First, owning several farms in different regions is a hedge against lossesdue to inclement weather or problems associated with natural hazards thatmay impact one of the farms but not all of them. Second, the suitcase farmer’sdiversification lessens the affects of negative market fluctuations in the pricingof individual crops.

A suitcase farmer may own apple orchards in northern New Mexico, alfalfafields in Oregon, and wheat fields in Kansas. Travel is necessary at key times inthe growing season to ensure the efficient operation of each farm. During plow-ing, fertilizing, harvesting, and any other time that human labor is involved,the suitcase farmer or a foreman in his employ may visit the farms to supervisethe activities.

Suitcase farming started in the wheat-growing regions of the northern GreatPlains after World War II. Over the years, the number of farms in this categoryhas increased. The major wheat belt in the United States and Canada isaligned north and south, and crews of workers start in the south and travelnorthward from farm to farm to plant, fertilize, and harvest the grain. Exceptfor the periodic visits of the suitcase farmer and his workers, the farms are usu-ally uninhabited. For that reason, the suitcase farmer is not considered to be anabsentee landlord.

As farm size has increased in the United States and Canada, the suitcasefarmer has become more closely associated with agribusiness.

Suggested Readings: John Fraser Hart, The Rural Landscape, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni-versity Press, 1998; Leslie Hewes, The Suitcase Farming Frontier: A Study in the Historical Geogra-

phy of the Central Great Plains, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973.

Superimposed boundary. A boundary that is drawn after the close of settle-ment and the development of a cultural landscape is called a superimposedboundary. The boundary may be the result of a conquering power imposing its

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will on the region, or it may be a demarcation line set up to divide the admin-istrative duties of two occupying groups. For example, the boundary set at the38th parallel in Korea after World War II was established as an administrativeline. The Soviet Union was to administer the Korean territory north of the lineand the United States that to the south. The division was to remain in placeonly long enough for preparations to be made for democratic elections to takeplace. The planned elections were never held, and in time two separate coun-tries were formed, each politically antithetical to the other.

In 1947, Pakistan was separated from India when Great Britain left theSouth Asian region. The two countries shared a superimposed boundary.Within a short time, Muslims in India fled to Pakistan from the predominantlyHindi India.

In 1945, following the defeat of the French in Vietnam, the country was di-vided by a superimposed boundary along the 17th parallel. This division re-mained until 1975, when the two countries, North Vietnam and SouthVietnam, were united following the end of the Vietnam War and the departureof U.S. military forces. The newly reunified country was named the SocialistRepublic of Vietnam.

The most expansive example of superimposed boundary creation occurredduring the era of colonialism in Africa. Boundaries set in place by the Euro-pean occupiers invariably cut through and separated the home territories ofdistinct African culture groups, causing widespread dislocation. Following theend of colonialism, the superimposed boundaries established in Africa duringthat period became permanent.

Suggested Readings: Clive H. Scholfield, ed., Global Boundaries, vol. 1, World Boundaries Se-ries, London: Routledge, 1994; P. J. Taylor, ed., Political Geography of the Twentieth Century: A

Global Analysis, New York: Halstead Press, 1993.

Supranationlism. Supranationalism identifies the growing movement of al-liance formation including three or more countries for economic, cultural, ormilitary reasons. Supranational alliances are entered into for mutual benefitand protection and the expression of shared goals. There were more than 100supranational organizations in 2000.

Following World War I, the League of Nations was formed with the goal ofpreventing future conflicts. The United States chose not to join the League,and without U.S. support, it soon collapsed.

In 1948, the United Nations (UN) was formed to ensure that no futureglobal conflict would occur. The UN has maintained its existence into thetwenty-first century, and it is the most extensive supranational organization inhistory, with nearly 200 member countries. During the cold war, the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed to counter any aggressivemoves made against Western Europe by the Soviet Union and its Eastern Eu-ropean buffer zone of countries. NATO’s opposing forces also formed a supra-national group called the Warsaw Pact.

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In Southeast Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),founded in 1967, functions as both a political and economic supranational or-ganization. Originally formed to counter any threatening moves by China, thegroup has worked to achieve regional cooperation and the peaceful settlementof any boundary disputes that may arise. The organization initiated theASEAN Free Trade Association, which is patterned after two other economi-cally based alliances, the European Union and the North American FreeTrade Agreement.

It is anticipated that the number of supranational organizations in the worldwill increase. The major factor underlying this projected growth is the global-ization of political and economic activity and the relatively diminished role ofnational governments in the new world order.

Suggested Readings: Thomas M. Poulsen, Nations and States: A Geographical Background to

World Affairs, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995; Colin H. Williams, The Political Geog-

raphy of the New World Order, London: Belhaven Press, 1993.

Sustainable development. The basic premise of sustainable development is thecontinued survival of land-use practices and the maintenance of the environ-mental base. Ideally, the use of the environmental base will not be lost throughdegradation or resource exhaustion. In short, a balance will be achieved be-tween development and the environment that supports it.

Subsistence agriculture has long been identified as a successful form of sus-tainable development. For millennia, farmers throughout the developing worldhave maintained the proper balance between the growing of food crops andpreservation of the soil. One form of subsistence agriculture, shifting cultiva-tion, has been particularly successful in this regard. Shifting cultivation, farm-ing a plot of ground for a number of years and then moving cultivation toanother field, allows the vacated field to lie fallow for a number of years and re-gain full soil fertility (see Extensive agriculture). However, in recent decadespopulation increase and drought conditions in many regions of Sub-SaharanAfrica have put added pressure on existing farmland in the developing coun-tries. As a result of these added pressures, fields used in shifting cultivation arefarmed for an increased number of years before being rested, and this decreasestheir soil fertility and level of productivity.

The concept of sustainable development has at least two interpretations: (1)the environmentalist’s view of the long term—to ensure that the land is usedfrugally and without environmental degradation so it will remain equally pro-ductive for future generations; and (2) the economist’s view, which holds thatresources are created to meet new demands. From the economist’s perspective,technology will provide enhancements to the productive process as new needsare realized.

In 1992, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development con-vened a conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference drew attention tothe need for conservation and the diligent use of resources. Particular attention


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was devoted to the topic of soil care, proper use of forest reserves, the avoid-ance of overfishing, species decline, and the reduction of air pollution fromgaseous emissions (see Deforestation, Pollution, and Renewable resources).Additionally, attention was drawn to the need for increased recycling effortsand the substitution of energy sources wherever possible. For instance, coal andoil shale were seen as suitable substitutes for the fast-depleting supplies of crudeoil. Emphasis was also placed on developing such renewable energy sources asgeothermal, wind, and solar.

Suggested Readings: The Agricultural Link: How Environmental Deterioration Could Dis-

rupt Economic Progress, Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1997; Timothy O’Rior-dan, “From Environmentalism to Sustainability,” Scottish Geographical Journal, vol. 115(1999).

Systematic (thematic) geography. Most geographic research is either system-atic (thematic) or regional. Systematic geography limits itself to a particularsubdiscipline. For example, an agricultural geographer studies and conducts re-search on particular farming techniques or some other aspect of agriculturalprocessing. A medical geographer conducts research on the spread of a particu-lar disease, such as the spatial diffusion of an influenza outbreak.

There are dozens of systematic specialties in geography. The Association ofAmerican Geographers, the primary professional organization for the disci-pline, lists more than 50 specialty groups that members of the association mayselect when they join. Such diversity is not uncommon in academic disci-plines. Individuals in all areas of academia and research must choose a rathernarrow subfield within their discipline because of the enormous increase in ac-cumulated information and data. It is no longer possible to be a universalscholar in the mode of Alexander von Humboldt or Carl Ritter. Specializa-tion has become an attribute of all disciplines.

The table of contents in an introductory human geography textbookarranged systematically will identify the major subfields. For example, Human

Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities, by Fellmann, Getis, and Getis (see

bibliography), lists the following chapter topics: roots and meanings of culture;spatial interaction and spatial behavior; populations, language, and religion;ethnic geography; folk and popular culture; economic geography; urban sys-tems and urban structures; the political ordering of space; and human impacton the environment. All of these topics are systematic, or thematic, as is themain theme of the book, human geography.

Systematic geography gained prominence during the post–World War II eraas a result of disciplinary disenchantment with the form of regional geographybeing practiced. Systematic geography also received a boost from the Quanti-tative Revolution, a movement that began in the 1950s.

Suggested Readings: Peter Haggett, The Geographical Art, Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell,

1995; Carville Earle et al., eds., Concepts in Human Geography, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Little-

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Systems theory. Thinking of the earth, the economy, a person, and even a sin-gle leaf as a system is commonplace in the sciences, and geography is no excep-tion. A system may be described as a set of parts that are linked throughinterdependence. A system has inputs and outputs. In short, a system is dy-namic. For example, an automobile has inputs in the form of gasoline, oil, andantifreeze, among others. Its outputs include exhaust gases, heat, worn tires,and other parts too numerous to mention. The inputs are necessary for the op-eration of the system (the automobile), and the outputs reflect the conversionof energy and materials into waste products as the automobile is used.

Systems also have feedback of information. If a car is driven in winter fromMiami, Florida, to Minot, North Dakota, a considerable temperature changetakes place along the way. The climate-control system in the car, if set to oper-ate automatically, will sense the temperature changes and regulate the climatewithin the car. As the journey north continues and colder weather is experi-enced, the engine will work a bit harder to maintain ideal operating condi-tions, which will require an increase in the amount of gasoline used per mile,another example of feedback to the system and its response.

Geographers use systems theory with regularity. In fact, geography issupremely organized to operate in a systems mode. Historians of Americangeography Preston James and Geoffrey Martin, in their book All PossibleWorlds: A History of Geographical Ideas, contend that “geography has alwayshad a holistic tradition so that it comes as no intellectual shock to study sys-tems of interconnected and interdependent parts of diverse origin” (p. 9).Systems theory began in earnest with the publication of Ludwig von Berta-lanffy’s book General Systems Theory: Foundations, Development, Applicationsin 1968. Von Bertalanffy, one of the most important theoretical biologists ofthe first half of the twentieth century, insisted that a holistic approach wasnecessary in scientific studies to understand ecological problems and findways to solve them.

The Club of Rome, a group of prominent industrialists and scientists locatedin Hamburg, Germany, undertook one of the most important applications ofsystems theory in the 1970s. The group used systems theory to study such majorglobal problems as resource depletion, pollution, and population growth. Itsprogram of study was titled the “Project on the Predicament of Mankind.” Thecomputer programs the group used were aimed at determining how the keyvariables of population, resource use, pollution, industrial production, and foodavailability worked together in a systematic way through time. Initial conclu-sions from the study suggested that sustainable development to the year 2100was possible only if industrial production was significantly reduced.

Geographers today work with urban systems, economic systems, political sys-tems, and atmospheric circulation systems, among others. It is generally ac-cepted that occurrences in one part of the world can have an effect someplaceelse. One example of this interdependence is the El Niño phenomenon, in

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which a change in the water temperature in the eastern Pacific Ocean impactsthe atmospheric circulation system, causing unusual and abnormal weatheroutcomes as far away as North America and Europe.

Suggested Readings: Robert W. Christopherson, Geosystems: An Introduction to Physical Geog-

raphy, 3rd ed., Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997; Geoffrey J. Martin and Preston E.James, All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley &Sons, 1993; Donella H. Meadows et al., The Limits to Growth, New York: Universe Books, 1972.

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Telecommuting. Increasing numbers of workers who once commuted fromhome to their place of employment now complete job assignments at home orin local work centers. They are still employed by the same company but rarelycommute to the office. These workers are engaged in telecommuting. Increasedefficiency in communications technology and the need to reduce the amountof vehicular traffic on busy urban thoroughfares has resulted in a boom intelecommuting.

Workers at home are connected to the main office by computer, telephone,and fax. Assignments are sent to them electronically or by mail; they completetheir tasks and return completed work to the office. If the worker does not op-erate from home, there is most likely an established work center nearby thatcan be used for the same purpose. Work centers have communications equip-ment, photocopiers, word processors, and other items necessary for accom-plishing the work. Work centers are established either by the telecommuter’splace of employment or outside firms that specialize in that service (see Out-sourcing). Telecommuting is a reflection of the decided increase in the size ofthe tertiary sector in advanced economies. It is also suggestive of a changed re-lationship between employer and employee. There is a conceptual parallel be-tween telecommuting employees and footloose industries.

One of the earliest and most successful efforts to encourage telecommutingoccurred in Los Angeles in the 1980s. The Los Angeles Basin suffers from seri-ous smog accumulation, and efforts have been underway since the 1950s to ad-dress the problem and alleviate the health hazards associated with the noxiousgases. In 1988, a plan was proposed to improve air quality and relieve conges-tion on the roadways in the region. Because the materials in vehicular exhaust


systems are the major cause of smog, plans were proposed to cut back on theseemissions.

Telecommuting was one of the major components in the proposal. Othersincluded highway improvements, the expansion of the multilane road systemin the region; expansion of mass transit, which in turn would require more traf-fic lanes; using more high-occupancy vehicles to transport people to work; cre-ating alternative work schedules to ease congestion during normal rush-hourtimes; and reorganizing the physical structure of the metropolitan area to havejobs and homes closer to each other. The last item is, of course, gigantic inscope and would take trillions of dollars and several decades to complete. Theother components were considered worthy of considering in a plan that wouldspan 20 years.

It was clear that telecommuting would be an important part of the overallplan. In surveys of companies that were involved primarily in information pro-cessing, it was determined that workers directly involved in that aspect of theoperation represented up to 60 percent of the company’s workforce. Allowingthese employees to telecommute eliminated thousands of miles traveled by au-tomobile and also reduced smog levels.

Telecommuting, a somewhat novel idea in the mid-1950s, is widely used intoday’s economy, and it is anticipated that this efficient business practice willcontinue to grow. Telecommuting is another feature of the postindustrialeconomy.

Suggested Readings: James M. Lents and William J. Kelly, “Cleaning the Air in Los Angeles,”Scientific American, October 1993; Esther Scott, “Cleaner Air and Clearer Roads: A Plan for theLos Angeles Region,” case number C16–93–1170.0, Cambridge, Mass.: John F. Kennedy Schoolof Government, Harvard University, 1992; Office of Technology Assessment, The Technological

Reshaping of Metropolitan America, Washington, D.C.: Congress of the United States, 1995.

Teleology. The word teleology literally interpreted from its Greek origins means“complete discourse.” Teleology is a theory stating that events can be explainedonly as stages in a preordained outcome that is either planned by people or ex-ternally determined. Carl Ritter’s geography was teleological because he in-sisted that God designed the earth for the benefit of humans. Ritter influencedother geographers with his teleological views. One of his advocates, ArnoldGuyot, wrote this about the association of a higher power and the earth: “All isin order, all is harmony in the universe, because the whole universe is athought of God” (Livingstone, p. 151).

Teleology contends that explanation comes only through the understandingof a design or plan and not by mechanical causation. In short, a divine purpose,the teleologist suggests, explains the earth and all within it. Evidence of teleo-logical thinking is found in early Egyptian documents. The ancient Greekphilosophers Socrates and Plato spoke of ordered creation. But Aristotle de-parted from other classical thinkers in his belief that an internal logic existedin nature and that no predetermined outcomes existed. Teleology, then, is a

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theory in opposition to causal analysis. For example, Charles Darwin, in histheory of natural selection, used causal analysis to explain the evolution ofspecies: particular causes brought about subsequent effects on plant and animallife, resulting in changes. The teleologist, on the other hand, would discountthis form of explanation and state that the end itself is the means to understandthe cause. For the teleologist, the explanation of a pine cone is that it will be-come a pine tree.

Teleologists, invoking a literal interpretation of Judeo-Christian biblicalstatements, conclude that God created earth for the benefit of humans andthat humans are to take over the earth and modify it. In doing so, they wouldbe completing the act of creation. This philosophical tenet resulted in theseparation of humanity and nature. In this philosophy, humans and the envi-ronment are separate, and this view identifies one of the most pervasive di-chotomies that geographers have contended with for centuries.

Suggested Readings: David Livingstone, The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a

Contested Enterprise, Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1992; Carl Ritter, “What Geography asa Science Has Yet to Consider,” in A Source Book in Geography, ed. George Kish, Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978.

Terracing. Agricultural activity practiced on mountainsides and hill slopes isdone with terracing. The slopes are notched into level steplike terraces, orbenches, which are enclosedand sectioned with retainingwalls. The walls retain the ir-rigation water needed forplant growth and prevent soilerosion. Terracing is used inregions that lack extensiveareas of flat land and wherepopulation numbers requiremaximum efforts to provideample food.

Terracing is a labor-inten-sive practice from the originalinstallation of terraces to theplanting, growing, and har-vesting of the crops. The useof labor-saving machinery isnot possible because of slopesteepness, and water in most cases must be manually carried uphill. Clearingthe narrow terraces, cultivating the land, planting, weeding, harvesting, andmaintaining the enclosing retaining walls are all accomplished by humanlabor. Despite these difficulties, terracing is practiced throughout South, East,and Southeast Asia and in some areas in the Mediterranean region.

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Terracing near Taegu, South Korea, in the Fall. Source: Author’s photo.

Terracing is a special form of intensive agriculture, because maximum yieldsof a crop are produced on a limited amount of land. Rice is a commonly growncrop in terracing agriculture.

Suggested Readings: Bruce Koppel et al., Development or Deterioration: Work in Rural Asia,

Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Reiner, 1994; Barbara Weightman, Geography of Asia: Of Dragons and

Tigers, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000.

Territoriality. The act of establishing control over a defined space and apply-ing to it a condition of ownership is called territoriality. The space can be aslarge as a sovereign state or as small as the personal space surrounding an indi-vidual. Territoriality is an eminently viable geographical concept, becausespace, area, and territory are all directly involved. Therefore, the concept liesat the heart of the discipline.

The system of dividing the earth into clearly demarcated countries is basedon territoriality. A country may open its borders to outsiders for business activ-ities, recreation, or personal visits, but any attempts at taking over the state orparts of it will invite an aggressive response. The same emotional reaction mayoccur if the return of land once accessed by a country through conquest is de-manded. For example, the Soviet Union has occupied four islands north ofHokkaido, Japan, since the end of World War II. Discussions have been heldover the years between the two countries, but the issue has not been resolved.In the early 1990s, the nationalist leadership in Russia made it clear that itwould strenuously oppose the return of even one square inch of the territoryclaimed by Japan.

In the 1960s, anthropologist Robert Ardrey (1908–80) published an influen-tial book titled The Territorial Imperative, in which he claimed that human ter-ritoriality is analogous to the animal instinct to control spaces they havemarked. Two decades later, American geographer Robert Sack suggested thatArdrey’s animal-instinct analogy was not suitable. Human territoriality, Sackcontended, is far more complex and its manifestations can differ greatly in timeand place. For instance, attitudes toward land vary from culture to culture. Insome countries, land may be used in common by a number of families for farm-ing. But in other countries, the sanctity of private land is strong enough to pre-clude similar practices.

Territoriality at the level of sovereign states reflects the practice of organiz-ing space into either spheres of influence or state territory with clearly markedboundaries. The demarcated areas are legally bounded spaces and are exclusiveto the occupants. The sovereign state system was set up to ensure politicalidentity and the security of its citizens.

The notion of personal space also applies on the level of the individual. Per-sonal space is the invisible area proximate to a person’s body into which othersmay not enter. If someone gets too close, especially to one’s face, an immediatefeeling of discomfort arises. Yet, one may tolerate invasions of personal space ifcaught in a crowd and jostled around. Of course, one sacrifices personal space

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completely by diving into a packed mosh pit! Normally, however, personalspace is an emotionally charged zone.

Suggested Readings: Robert Ardrey, The Territorial Imperative, New York: Atheneum, 1966;A. B. Murphy, “The Sovereign State as Political-Territorial Ideal: Historical and ContemporaryConsiderations,” in State Sovereignty as Social Construct, ed. T. Biersteker and C. Weber, Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966.

Tertiary sector. The tertiary sector in an economic system is entirely devotedto services. The tangible products grown or extracted in the primary sectorthat are subsequently processed or manufactured in the secondary sector aretransported, wholesaled, and retailed in the tertiary sector.

Some of the hundreds of industries in the tertiary sector include restau-rants, hotels, barber and beauty shops, repair facilities, commercial and dis-tribution centers, wholesale and retail operations, and clerical services. Thebusiness of the tertiary sector is to provide a wide array of services directly toconsumers. The consumer may be the end user of the service, such as the pur-chaser of a new suit of clothes from a retailer, or the consumer may be an-other service organization. In the postindustrial economy, specialization ofeconomic effort is the rule. For example, an office equipment retailing firmmay contract with another service firm to provide all human resources work(see Outsourcing). Business arrangements of this type are commonplace intoday’s economy.

Since the 1950s, the service sector in developed-world economies hasgrown significantly in prominence. Tertiary-sector employment in 2000 ex-ceeded 75 percent of all nonfarm workers in the United States. In 2002,tertiary-sector employment exceeded 80 percent of all nonfarm workers inthe United States. Other developed countries reported comparable ad-vances in service jobs. Increases in the tertiary sector are expected to con-tinue in the future.

Most service organizations are clustered in urban places, where potentialcustomers are most plentiful. In the United States and Canada, the centralbusiness district (CBD) of cities traditionally served as the center for servicesto the community. Following World War II, suburban growth brought about ashift of service providers outward from the city center. As suburbia grew inpopulation size and areal extent, edge cities began to develop along interstatebeltways. These centers provide virtually all of the same services found in theCBD.

Suggested Readings: Peter W. Daniels, Service Industries in the World Economy, Institute ofBritish Geographers, Studies in Geography, Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1993; J. N. Mar-shall, Services and Space: Aspects of Urban and Regional Development, White Plains, N.Y.: Long-man, 1995.

Threshold. See Christaller’s central place theory.

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Time-space convergence. Time-space convergence reflects changes in trans-portation technologies that have resulted in places becoming closer to eachother in terms of travel time and accessibility. For example, in the 1830s a tripfrom New York City to San Francisco by the fastest surface transportationwould take at least two months. Today, the trip could be made in a matter ofhours by scheduled airline or in a few days by train or automobile. Increases inaccessibility such as these suggest a decrease in the significance of distance.

With each refinement in transportation technology, the friction of distanceis reduced (see Distance decay). However, time-space convergence in surfacetransportation contexts applies most directly to people and places that have ac-cess to transportation systems that have significantly reduced travel time. Notall places in the world are effectively connected to such modern systems, nordo many people and locations, especially in the developing world, have easyaccess to them. For places not so connected, it is possible that a time-space di-vergence has occurred.

Another aspect of time-space convergence has even greater potential for im-pacting accessibility. Revolutionary changes in communications technology inrecent years has brought about virtually instantaneous global connections.Telephones, fax machines, and computer connections through electronic mailand the Internet allow this instant communication to take place among peoplewho have the technology. In the current era of information processing and theimportance of that activity in global economies, a significant transformation isunderway in the way business is conducted. Again, those without the means toaccess this technology cannot benefit directly.

The importance of the communications revolution cannot be overempha-sized. Some experts are convinced that the world of electronic communica-tions and information processing will lead to the death of distance. Time-spaceconvergence implies two simultaneous outcomes: (1) an expansion of the po-tential for interaction over space; and (2) the contraction of space over time.The notion of death of distance states that both interaction over space andcontraction over time are maximized. In short, any place can be reached fromany other place instantaneously. Again, however, the technology must beavailable to potential users, and the idea applies only to the communicationsrealm. The transport of crude oil from the Middle East, bananas from CostaRica, a loaf of bread to the local convenience store, or a family driving fromMissoula, Montana, to Seattle on vacation are all limited by the time it takesto travel across the surface.

Suggested Readings: J. Allen and C. Hamnett, eds., A Shrinking World? Global Unevenness and

Inequity, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995; Frances Cairncross, The Death of Distance; How

the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives, Boston: Harvard Business School Press,1997.

Topographic map. The topographic map, produced by the U.S. Geologic Sur-vey, is a large-scale map that accurately depicts detailed physical and cultural


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features within a limited area. Topographic maps are produced in a range ofsizes in the form of quadrangles based on latitude and longitude. Topographicmaps range in scale from 1:250,000, representing an area measuring one de-gree of latitude by two degrees of longitude, to the largest of topographic mapscales, 1:24,000, depicting a 7.5-minute by 7.5-minute quadrangular area.This topographic map is commonly called a 7.5-minute quad. There are also15-minute quads (1:62,500), 30-minute quads (1:125,000), and the 30-minute by one-degree topographic map (1:1,000,000). By the mid-1990s,mapping of the entire conterminous United States was completed with 7.5-minute quads. Coverage of Alaska is completed with 15-minute quads.

The topographic map holds a wealth of valuable information. Because of itslarge scale and coverage of a limited area, a great deal of detail can be includedon any given map. A representative topographic map may include symbolizedinformation on transportation corridors, city street grids, individual buildings,cemeteries, mine sites, race tracks, and airports to name only a few. The U.S.Geologic Survey publishes a detailed symbol sheet to assist the map reader ininterpreting the information on each map.

Topographic maps also provide information on the degree of surface reliefand elevations above mean sea level in the mapped area. Elevations are re-ported with a series of enclosed contour lines, each of which connects points ofequal elevation (see Cartography). The contour lines are plotted in series ofelevation values based on the selected contour interval. For example, an eleva-tion range from 900 feet to 1,200 feet could be mapped with contour lines rep-resenting every 20-foot change in elevation.

The pattern of contour lines on the map provides a clear indication of thedegree of change in elevation anywhere in the area. If the contour lines areclosely spaced, a steep slope is present. If the lines are widely spaced, the slopeis gentler. Mountains, valleys, and ridgelines, as well as relatively flat alluvialplains, are easily distinguished through an analysis of the contour-line pattern.

The topographic map is an excellent tool for introducing the cartographicprinciples of scale and generalization, two of three attributes common to allmaps. Because a topographic map shows individual buildings, bridges, and or-chards, for example, the student of map reading can be taken to the actual siteof a feature to see it directly and then note how the feature is symbolized on thetopographic map. This activity introduces the idea of generalization. The thirdattribute common to all maps, distortion, is not easily perceived with topo-graphic maps because the area portrayed is too small. However, referring to asmall-scale map will clearly illustrate the effects of map distortion.

Suggested Readings: Victor Miller and Mary Westerbrook, Interpretation of Topographic Maps,

Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1989; John Noble Wilford, “Revolutions in Mapping,” Na-

tional Geographic, vol. 193 (1998).

Toponym. A toponym is a place name, and toponymy is the study of placenames. Place names are an important part of the cultural geography of a re-

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gion. They can reveal the attitudes of the people who chose the names andmay reveal important information about the nature of the place. For example,the word winter is found in a number of Florida place names, a state not usuallyassociated with the perception of winter as a cold season. In this case, it is apromotional association: Winter Haven, one of the places in Florida, is an in-vitation to northerners to seek refuge in its relative warmth when the chillnorthern winds blow.

George Washington is commemorated in place names more than any otherAmerican leader. He is the only president to have a state named for him, andthe U.S. capital bears his name, as do 31 counties. Place names often have an-cient roots, such as Troy, New York, named for the city made famous in the an-cient Greek epic poet Homer’s Iliad. Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, wasnamed for a successful radio quiz show of the 1940s and 1950s.

Sometimes a controversy serves as the basis for a place name. Cando, NorthDakota, got its name after county officials proclaimed they could name thetown anything they chose. Others in the community did not think that way. Intime, the officials got their way and chose to use the combined words can anddo in the name, reflective of their claim.

Louis Agassiz (1807–73) was a famous nineteenth-century Swiss biologistand geologist. His name is used to identify a number of physical settings, in-cluding Agassiz Glacier, Alaska, and Agassiz Peak, Arizona. The word enter-prise was chosen for the enterprising people in three communities, includingEnterprise, Alabama. This town’s economic history was marked by decades ofrelatively unsuccessful cotton growing. When the boll weevil entered thesouthern states and ravaged the cotton crop, the people of Enterprise wereelated. They quickly shifted their efforts to peanut growing and erected a statueto honor the boll weevil for relieving them of their economic woes.

Los Angeles, California, “the city of angels,” was founded in 1769 and wasoriginally named El Pueblo de la Reine, de los Angeles de la Porciuncula. Intime, and probably to most people’s relief, the name was shortened to Los An-geles. Hollywood was not named for the wood of the holly tree, but for the wifeof the developer of the settlement. Pancake Range, Nevada, was not namedafter a chuck wagon breakfast favorite but the flat rock formations in the re-gion.

Thousands of toponyms in the United States and Canada derive from Amer-ican Indian words. One is Chanhassen, a Twin Cities suburb in Minnesota. Inthe Sioux language, this word refers to the sugar maple tree. The place nametranslates to “the tree with sweet juice.” Sometimes the reference is not sopleasant. Stinkingwater Peak, Wyoming, takes its unflattering name from anearby river.

Ranger, Texas, commemorates the actions of the Texas Rangers who pro-tected the settlement during the building of the Texas and Pacific Railroad.Many toponyms begin with the word new. New York City, New Mexico, andNew Trier are examples. Another is New Bern, North Carolina, county seat of

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Craven County, named after Bern, Switzerland, and famous as a longtimerefuge for the infamous pirate Bluebeard. Travelers between Colorado and NewMexico on Interstate 25 will pass through Raton, New Mexico, and the RatonPass on the border of the two states. In Spanish, raton means “mouse.” InRaton, the word is used to identify a particular breed of local ground squirrel.This is an example of a misinterpretation that remains in the place name. Tofurther confound the matter, many people in the region believe that Ratonrefers to rat. So, a mouse became a ground squirrel and is believed to be a rat!

In some cases, the toponym can be straightforward. An example is MidwayIsland, named for its location in the Pacific Ocean exactly halfway betweenNorth America and Asia. Before the advent of the Boeing 747 and other long-range jet airplanes that can fly across the Pacific Ocean without the need for arefueling stop, Midway Island was regularly visited. In 1942, the famous Battleof Midway was fought between the naval forces of the United States and Japan.The U.S. victory proved to be a turning point in World War II.

Place names can change over time. The town of St. Petersburg, Russia, wasfounded and named in 1703 by Czar Peter the Great. Beginning in 1712, thefast-growing city became the capital of the Russian Empire, a position it heldfor more than 200 years. In 1917, at the time of the Russian Revolution, thename was changed to Petrograd, and in 1924 it became Leningrad in com-memoration of the Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin. The city heldthat name until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991; today it is again called St.Petersburg.

Suggested Readings: Harold E. Gulley, “British and Irish Toponyms in the South Atlantic

States,” Names, vol. 43 (1995); Kelsie B. Harder, ed., Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United

States and Canada, New York: Facts on File, 1976; George Stewart, Names on the Globe, New

York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Topophilia. This word topophilia was coined by cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuanand means “love of place.” Tuan is a renowned exponent of humanistic geog-

raphy, a concept he developed in the 1970s and one of the approaches in thediscipline that followed and took issue with the scientific bent of the Quanti-

tative Revolution. Topophilia is about the affective domain in human experi-ences. The concept is especially applied to, and aims to uncover emotional tieswith, the physical environment. Centered in the affective domain, topophiliais not concerned with the cognitive or objective analyses of place. Therefore,the intellectual camp of topophilia is in the humanities, as opposed to much ofgeography, which is housed in the social sciences. Irish geographer AnneButtimer contends that the humanistic perspective is important in geographyand in many ways it lies at the heart of the discipline.

The ties that humans have with their environmental setting run the gamutfrom aesthetic to tactile, to the strong emotional attachment associated withhome and expressed in warm memories and even nostalgia for places oncelived in long ago.

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The feelings people have for particular places vary in intensity. A fleetingmemory of a lake resort visited on a recent vacation trip may capture one’s at-tention for a moment and then fade away. But the intensity of feeling for a fa-vorite corner in the home of one’s childhood can be enormously compellingand filled with powerful recollections.

Topophilia is conceptually related to environmental perception in a positiveway. A place with strong emotional ties is not only perceived but is revered andheld in high esteem. Yi-Fu Tuan believes that topophilia can be related even toplaces not actually seen but vividly imagined. How many children have readwith great feeling and a near personal association with the landscapes inL. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), perhaps even imaginingthey are in that place with Dorothy and the other characters? Topophilia can berelated to utopian landscapes clearly imagined and the object of great longing.

Not all landscapes and places are the object of love and endearment. Mostare, in fact, considered casually if at all. Some are the object of topophobia, theantithesis of topophilia. A place may evoke feelings of depression, fear, andeven suffering. For instance, a survivor of the brutality of a World War II con-centration camp revisiting the place years later would most certainly recoil inanguish at the prospect of the experience.

Suggested Readings: Anne Buttimer, Geography and the Human Spirit, Baltimore: Johns Hop-kins University Press, 1993; J. Douglas Porteous, Landscapes of the Mind: Worlds of Sense and

Metaphor, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990; Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness,

London: Methuen, 1976; Yi-Fu Tuan, Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes,

and Values, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1974.

Total fertility rate. The total fertility rate (TFR) represents the average num-ber of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years, which istaken to be ages 15 through 45. TFRs in all regions of the world have declinedover the last several decades. Nonetheless, the world TFR still exceeds threechildren per woman. To put this number into context it is necessary to knowthat replacement rate, the average number of children born during the child-bearing years, is 2.1. This is the rate at which zero population growth wouldeventually be achieved.

In 2000, all countries in the developed world and China had TFRs that werebelow 2.1. Some European countries had TFRs that were 1.5 and below, thelowest overall rates of any major region in the world. Not surprisingly the high-est rates are found in Africa. The TFRs in most African countries exceed 4.0,and some Sub-Saharan countries have rates over 6.0.

It would seem clear from this brief regional summary that global populationgrowth will continue well into the twenty-first century. Even if every countryin the world immediately achieved the 2.1 children replacement rate, signifi-cant population increase would still occur for many years into the future. Thisis understood when the age composition of the developing countries is takeninto account. Because the population pyramid of any of the developing coun-


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tries shows high numbers of people in the young age groups, there is certaintythat high population growth will persist even if the 2.1 replacement rate wereto be immediately accepted.

Whereas many countries are experiencing high population increases (andhigh TFRs), the European region has actually experienced declines in totalpopulation. The explanation lies in early completion of the demographic tran-sition, a steadily increasing average age in most countries, a lower percentageof the population in the childbearing years, and consequently much lowerTFRs.

The United Nations is continually monitoring TFRs and other demographicmeasures in an attempt to arrive at accurate predictions of future populationtrends. The TFR is a key factor in these formulations. In a recent demographicstudy, the United Nations predicted that total world population in 2100 wouldrange from a high of 16 billion to a low of 5 billion. The median prediction,based on a TFR of 2.03, would result in a total world population in 2100 ofmore than nine billion people, a 50 percent increase over the 2000 total.

Suggested Readings: Brian O’Neill and Deborah Balk, “World Population Futures,” Popula-

tion Bulletin, vol. 56 (2001); Bryant Robie et al., “The Fertility Decline in Developing Coun-tries,” Scientific American, vol. 269 (1993).

Township and range system. Federal legislation in the 1790s produced a landsurvey system for the United States and its continental territories not alreadysettled. The township and range survey is a rectangular division of the landinto nearly square parcels of various sizes. This system eased the identificationof specific blocks of land and served as an aid in the sale of land as westward ex-pansion began to build momentum.

The township and range system of land division proceeded from a number ofbase lines set along parallels of latitude and principal meridians. The basic gridsystem was composed of square areas called townships, each measuring sixmiles on each side. Townships were further divided into 36 one-mile square(640 acres) sections, which in turn were divided into quarter sections (160acres) and the so-called 40s, a 40-acre square of land. A unique addressing sys-tem was devised to identify each township and its subdivisions and was basedon their location relative to the nearest base line and principal meridian.Canada also uses a rectangular land survey system; it is evident especially in thelandscape of the prairie provinces.

The township and range system had a profound visual impact on the land.Anyone who has traveled by airplane over the midwestern United States can-not escape seeing the stark grid pattern of agricultural fields that mark thelandscape. The grid pattern with its adherence to cardinal directions (north,south, east, and west) was used in town planning as well. In most urban places,cardinal directions were used to lay out the street network. This is generallytrue even in places that were originally sited along a river not flowing along acardinal direction. The original plat paralleled the river at that point, but as


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U.S. Rectangular Surveys. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture.

the place grew in size, subsequent plats were aligned east–west and north–south.

The township and range system dictated the form of the original road net-work. Roads were set along township and section borders, following cardinaldirections. The system, for all its simplicity and ease of application, was notwithout problems. The square grid was ideally suited to flat expanses of land,but for highly dissected landscapes it was not nearly as effective.

Suggested Readings: Hildegard Binder Johnson, Order upon the Land: The U.S. Rectangular

Land Survey and the Upper Mississippi Country, New York: Oxford University Press, 1976; ChrisThomas, Rural Geography, London: Routledge, 1997.

Transhumance. The seasonal moving of domesticated animals (i.e., cattle,sheep, and goats) between regions of dissimilar climates in order to find ade-quate grassland for grazing is called transhumance. The word derives from twoLatin stem words, trans (across) and humus (land). Thus, “traveling across theland.”

Transhumance is a practice associated with permanent pastoralists as op-posed to nomadic herders, who move continuously between grazing lands anddo not own permanent dwellings. Transhumance is practiced in the EuropeanAlps and to a lesser extent in the American Rocky Mountain region. The peri-odic movement occurs on a regular basis: animals and people tending themmove to meadows at high elevations in summer to take advantage of lushgrasses that have regenerated following the spring snow melt. The pastoralistsoccupy small houses in the mountains during the summer period. In the fall,another periodic movement occurs as animals and tenders return to the lowerelevations for the winter season.

The practice of transhumance remains viable in the European Alps but isdeclining somewhat in the United States. In recent years, range grazing of cat-tle has given way to the feedlot system, in which animals are kept in locationsclose to major urban markets. In the feedlots, animals are fattened for slaugh-ter, and the meat products are quickly transported to wholesalers in the citiesfor immediate sale. Transhumance involving sheep, goats, and dairy cows isstill in evidence throughout the western mountains and the intermontane re-gions in the United States.

Suggested Readings: John G. Galaty and Douglas L. Johnson, The World of Pastoralism: Herd-

ing Systems in Comparative Perspective, New York: Guilford Press, 1990; Terry G. Jordan, North

American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers: Origins, Diffusions, and Differentiation, Albuquerque: Univer-sity of New Mexico Press, 1993.

Transnational corporation. A transnational corporation (TNC), also knownas multinational enterprise or a global industry, is a large firm with headquar-ters in one country and production facilities in one or more other countries.The advent of the TNC is without doubt the major source of change in theglobal economy. By 2000 there were more than 40,000 TNCs operating world-


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wide. TNCs set up operations in other countries to take advantage of inexpen-sive labor, available land, low energy costs, and other incentives. The opera-tion usually involves the manufacture of components for computers, electronicequipment, automobiles, aircraft, and consumer durable goods, among otherindustries. The manufactured components are then shipped to locations nearthe market for sale. Profits made in the operation remain with the TNC.

The TNC movement has grown to gigantic proportions. Total sales rev-enues in many TNCs exceed the gross national product of entire countries.Their large size allows them to exert considerable influence on the economicand political situation in the host country. One of the major factors underly-ing the phenomenal growth of TNCs is the ease with which foreign invest-ment funding can be accomplished. In years past, monetary exchangesbetween countries were cumbersome and time consuming. This is no longertrue. Electronic transfers of foreign investment funds are now handled effort-lessly. Another factor in the rise of TNCs is the greater accessibility affordedby improved transportation systems. The ease of moving both manufacturingcomponents and money has allowed TNCs to become footloose industries ona global scale.

The home countries of TNCs are, of course, in the developed world. TheUnited States, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan arethe leading countries in this regard. Recently, the economic powerhousesknown as the Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong)have also become the home base for TNCs. Japanese companies have estab-lished manufacturing and assembly plants in the United States, among otherplaces, to produce automobiles and textile products.

TNCs are representative of the significant economic and political changesthat are taking place in the era of globalization and the development of thenew international division of labor. It is now standard practice for a TNCbased in one country to have employees in perhaps dozens of other countriesproducing components for finished goods that reach markets worldwide.

Suggested Readings: Peter Dicken, Global Shift: The Internationalization of Economic Activity,

3rd ed., New York: Guilford Press, 1998; John Mills, Managing the World Economy, New York: St.Martin’s Press, 2000; Patrick O’Sullivan and Alasdair McNeely, “World Trade in the 1990s,” Ge-

ography, vol. 81 (1996); Michael Storper, The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global

Economy, New York: Guilford Press, 1997.

Transportation systems. The movement of people and goods via surface andair transportation systems is the essence of one of geography’s basic attributes:spatial interaction. Transportation systems provide the connectivity thatunites distant places and allows them to work together. The revolution intransportation development from the time of horse-drawn carts and sailingships to railroads and steamships through jet aircraft and high-speed interstatehighway systems is considered by many geographers and other scholars to be asimportant as the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. In-


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deed, without essential transportation systems in place, neither of these world-changing revolutions could have taken place.

Transportation is essential to sound economic growth. Its role in the econ-omy is especially prominent in the tertiary sector, but it is equally important inboth the primary and secondary sectors as well. Transportation is a key factorin the location of industrial activities. A firm must consider its accessibility toother firms with which it works and to its market. Transportation systems makethese forms of spatial interaction possible.

Improvements in transportation systems have the effect of bringing placescloser together and reducing the impact of friction of distance (see Distancedecay). Geographers have noted that the properties of time and space arechanged with each improvement and refinement in transportation technology.A trip by covered wagon from St. Louis to San Francisco in the early nine-teenth century was long and arduous. Travel between the same two places byautomobile on the interstate system, however, can be a nearly effortless experi-ence taking no more than a few days. Changes of this type are suggestive of thenotion of time-space convergence and the virtual shrinking of the world interms of access times between places.

Another indicator of the importance of transportation is its inclusion insome of the most important theories and models used in geography. For exam-ple, von Thunen’s land use model bases the types of agriculture in the isolatedstate on distance from the market center and the associated transportationcosts. Christaller’s central place theory includes discussion of transportationwithin the urban system. Weber’s least cost theory of economic activity aimsat selecting the ideal location for an industrial plant while minimizing the costof transportation.

Transportation systems are essential to the development and growth of theurban system within a region. In the United States, urban places were initiallysited on navigable rivers and along existing roads to be connected with one an-other. With the introduction of the railroad, cities were provided with access toevery other urban center within range of this new form of transportation. Thecentral business district (CBD) was the base for a major railroad transfer pointfor both passengers and cargo. The rail lines served the downtown area of citiesand the adjacent manufacturing, warehousing, and industrial districts. Follow-ing World War II, the move to suburbia was underway, and this shift tookplace in large part because of efficient transportation systems that provided ac-cess to the CBD and to points within the greater region.

Some of the outcomes of the transportation revolution have not been posi-tive. The move to suburbia has continued, and in many metropolitan areasurban sprawl has been the outcome. In nearly every metropolitan area, theproblem of rush-hour gridlock occurs on a daily basis. In a few cities, such asLos Angeles, the problem of smog combines with gridlock to plague the citywith noxious air and extended commuting delays.


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Suggested Readings: Susan Hanson, ed., The Geography of Urban Transportation, 2nd ed., NewYork: Guilford Press, 1995; Brian S. Hoyle and Richard D. Knowles, eds., Modern Transport Ge-

ography, New York: Halstead Press, 1992; John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle, The Gas Station in

America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994; Edward Taafe et al., eds., Geography

of Transportation, 2nd ed., Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996.


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United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Sixty countries ratifiedthe international agreement of the United Nations Convention on the Law ofthe Sea (UNCLOS), establishing offshore zones in oceanic waters and regula-tions for operating on the high seas, in 1994. Establishment of UNCLOS re-flected a desire to create a legal order for the ocean areas to establishcommunications among all sovereign states and to ensure the peaceful use ofthe oceans. The United States did not sign the agreement in the early 1980sbecause of concerns about potentially adverse outcomes with the Soviet Unionand disagreements over the claims of developing countries to mineral resourceson the ocean floor.

UNCLOS contained four major provisions aimed at settling years of dis-agreements and challenges by countries around the world: (1) establishment ofa 12-nautical-mile territorial sea within which a country would have sover-eignty and exclusive fishing rights; (2) establishment of a contiguous zone ex-tending 24 nautical miles for the enforcement of customs, immigration, andsanitation laws; (3) establishment of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) ex-tending 200 nautical miles from shore, allowing the country to explore, ex-ploit, conserve, and manage all natural resources on the seabeds and in thewaters; and (4) provision that the high seas be open to all countries, whethercoastally located or landlocked. According to the UNCLOS agreement, if thecontinental shelf goes beyond 200 nautical miles, the EEZ could be extendedup to a maximum distance of 350 nautical miles.

The 200-nautical-mile EEZ is problematical. Countries that are less than 200nautical miles from one another would not enjoy the full 200-nautical-mileprivileges. In these cases, UNCLOS provided for a solution in the median-line

principle, which gave each country one-half the distance between them fortheir EEZ. However, more serious problems are found in the South ChinaSea, where there are not only median-line arrangements in place but multi-ple and overlapping claims to sovereignty over the waters of the sea. China,Taiwan, and Vietnam, for example, claim all of the South China Sea as theirown.

The second problem concerns ownership of rich mineral resources on theseabeds of the open oceans. UNCLOS declared that these mineral resourcesare the common heritage of all humankind, to be managed for the benefit of allpeople on earth. This declaration clearly favored the developing countries thatwere either landlocked or did not have the technology to extract the resources,or both. The specific resource in question at the time of negotiations was prizedmanganese nodules, large clusters of highly valuable metals lying on theseabed. Only a handful of countries, the United States included, have the tech-nical capability to harvest the manganese nodules.

Suggested Readings: Albert R. Cole, Should the Reagan Administration Have Signed the U.N.

Convention on the Law of the Sea? Pew Case Studies in International Affairs, Case 403, Washing-ton, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, 1988; J. M. Van Dyke etal., Freedom for the Seas in the 21st Century: Ocean Government and Environmental Harmony,

Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1993.

Universalizing/ethnic religions. Major religions in the world exhibit a num-ber of geographic characteristics. Each has a place of origin from which thediffusion of that religion began. Also, each religion eventually established it-self in an identifiable region in which it is the most highly represented. Uni-versalizing religions make a conscious effort to attract converts. The majoruniversalizing religions are Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Christianitybegan in the region of present-day Israel and spread to areas of East Africa,Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and eventually to Australia and NewZealand. Islam began in Saudi Arabia and diffused to North Africa, South-west Asia, and parts of Southeast Asia. Buddhism originated in Nepal andnorthern India and eventually spread to Southwest, Central, East, andSoutheast Asia.

Christianity has the greatest number of adherents of any religion, with morethan two billion followers. Islam is second in number with nearly 1.5 billion.Buddhism has about 350 million followers.

Ethnic religions are not expansionistic and do not actively attract others tojoin their membership. By far the largest ethnic religion is Hinduism, withmore than 900 million members, nearly all of them living in India. Other eth-nic religions include Confucianism, Daoism (Taoism), Shintoism, and Ju-daism. All of these are of Asian origin except Judaism, which emerged in theMiddle East. Judaism claims to have 15 million members, two-thirds of themliving in the United States and Israel.

Suggested Readings: Adrian Cooper, “New Directions in the Geography of Religion,” Area,

vol. 24 (1992); Michael Paccione, “The Relevance of Religion for a Relevant Human Geogra-


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phy,” Scottish Geographical Journal, vol. 115 (1999); Ninian Smart, ed., Atlas of the World’s Reli-

gions, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Urban geography. Urban geography, the study of urban places, emerged as aseparate branch of geography in the 1950s and 1960s and quickly rose toprominence in the discipline. By the late 1970s, urban geography was the lead-ing specialty group in membership numbers in the Association of AmericanGeographers, the discipline’s primary professional organization. Urban geogra-phy held that position until the late 1990s, when the fast-rising field of geo-graphic information systems (GIS) enrolled larger numbers in its specialtygroup.

Urban geography has two major research directions. The first focuses on thepatterns of urban settlements and their interactions. Christaller’s centralplace theory considers urban places in this way. In central place theory, urbanplaces are studied to determine their relationships to each other within a hier-archically arranged system.

The second research direction looks at patterns within urban settlements.Analysis centers on the form of the urban place and its internal functions.Three models of urban structure exemplify this research direction in urbangeography: the concentric zone model, the sector model, and the multiple-nuclei model. All three of these models identify in different ways the inter-nal structure of urban places.

During the 1950s and 1960s, urban geographic studies were closely linkedwith the emerging field of location theory, and it became an important venuefor the statistical and mathematical models coming out of the QuantitativeRevolution at that time.

Suggested Readings: Harold Carter, The Study of Urban Geography, 4th ed., New York: JohnWiley & Sons, 1996; Truman Hartshorn, Interpreting the City: An Urban Geography, 3rd ed., NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1992; Helga A. Leitner, “Urban Geography: Responding to NewChallenges,” Progress in Human Geography, vol. 16 (1992).

Urban heat island. Urban areas are generally 10–15 degrees warmer than thesurrounding rural countryside. A number of factors explain this phenomenon.The materials used in the construction of urban areas are metals, glass, stone,concrete, and asphalt. All of these materials, except glass, have a lower albedo(reflective power) than the open fields, grasses, and trees in rural areas. Assuch, incoming shortwave solar radiation is readily absorbed in these buildingmaterials. Absorbed shortwave radiation is quickly transformed into long-waveradiation, or sensible heat. Glass adds to the heating of urban areas in a some-what different way. Glass allows shortwave radiation to easily pass through it.Once inside a building, the shortwave energy is transformed into long-waveenergy, and heat is generated. This process has commonly been referred to asthe greenhouse effect. It explains why an automobile parked in the sun on awarm day with the windows closed builds up an exceedingly high interior tem-perature.

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Asphalt, widely used on streets in urban areas, has a very low albedo, andvirtually all the sun’s shortwave radiation is absorbed and changed to sensibleheat. The old saying that asphalt can get so hot an egg can be fried on its sur-face is, in fact, true.

Another factor explaining the urban heat island is pollution. Concentra-tions of smog and carbon dioxide trapped in a dome of air over an urbanarea can block reflected shortwave radiation and hold it in the air. Also,winds are generally less intense in built-up areas because they are loweredand diverted by tall buildings. Solar inputs become trapped in the narrowspaces between buildings, and the reduced air flow cannot move the warmair out of the area.

Urban areas burn great amounts of fossil fuels to heat buildings in winter andto cool them in summer. Heat generated from the burning of these fuels alsobecomes trapped in the urban area. Finally, automobiles, trucks, and buses addgreatly to the heat accumulation in urban areas, and their exhaust gases con-tribute to pollution levels in the atmosphere, another element in the develop-ment of the urban heat island.

Suggested Readings: Eldon D. Enger and Bradley F. Smith, Environmental Science: A Study of

Interrelationships, 7th ed., Dubuque, Iowa: WCB/McGraw-Hill, 2000; Andrew Goudie andHeather Viles, The Earth Transformed: An Introduction to the Human Impact on the Environment,

Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1997.

Urban landscapes. Urban places have a distinctive landscape. Closely packedresidences, businesses, manufacturing and industrial buildings, and a complexstreet and road network set them off from the surrounding rural area. An urbanlandscape also reflects distinctive features within the place. For example, thecentral business district (CBD) is usually identified by an array of tall officebuildings, theaters, restaurants, and a transportation system linking the CBD toother parts of the city. By contrast, residential areas vary from high-rise apart-ment complexes to low-density, high-income housing districts. An urban placemay also include manufacturing, industrial, and transportation sectors, eachwith its particular combination of structures. All of these varied scenes arelandscapes in themselves, and collectively they make up the larger landscape ofan urban place.

All urban places share these attributes in varying degrees. The term urbanlandscape is a generalization. Yet, every urban place is unique in the specificarrangement of its landscape features. For example, both St. Louis, Missouri,and Paris, France, have an urban landscape, and in a general sense they arecomparable. But they are also unique. St. Louis has its arch and Paris the EiffelTower. The comparison, of course, could be extended to include hundreds offeatures unique to each of these major urban places. New York City has theStatue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and, until the tragic events ofSeptember 11, 2001, it had the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Theloss of a prominent urban landscape feature changes not only the look of the

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place but its emotional impact as well. When the loss results from a purposefulact of destruction, strong emotional responses are evoked.

The urban landscape is always changing. The growth of suburban develop-ments following World War II and the emergence of edge cities on the fringesof the developed area change the visual impact of the place and create a modi-fied urban landscape. Even the presence of smog hanging over a city becomespart of the urban landscape.

The concept of urban landscape applies at the regional level as well. Coa-lesced urban areas such as Megalopolis, a nearly continuous series of urbanplaces along the U.S. eastern seaboard between Boston and Washington, D.C.may validly be considered a single urban landscape.

Suggested Readings: Truman A. Hartsorn and Peter O. Muller, “Suburban Downtowns andthe Transformation of Metropolitan Atlanta’s Business Landscape,” Urban Geography, vol. 10(1989); Edward Relph, The Modern Urban Landscape: 1880 to the Present, Baltimore: Johns Hop-kins University Press, 1987.

Urban planning. The aim of urban planning is to regulate and control thegrowth and modification of cities. Specifically, planning may focus on changesto the transportation systems within the city to ensure optimum accessibilityto all internal areas. Planning may also be devoted to improving neighborhoodstructures and to remedying urban blight (see Gentrification).

One of the biggest concerns of planners in fast-growing metropolitan areasis the avoidance or containment of urban sprawl. Some American metropol-itan areas like Atlanta, Houston, Minneapolis–St. Paul, and Los Angeleshave grown outward, displacing extensive areas of rural land. If the sprawlcannot be stopped, then planning must be invoked to determine how best tomanage the expanded area. British cities have largely avoided sprawl by leg-islating the inclusion of green belts on the edges of existing cities. Growthoutside the cities must take place in designated areas beyond the green-beltzone. One American city, Portland, Oregon, has instituted a similar plan.Portland established a no-growth line beyond which urban development can-not proceed.

Another concern of planners is addressing the problems of smog and otherforms of atmospheric pollution that occur in some urban areas. Los Angeles isan example of a major metropolitan area that has been adjusting to a smogproblem since the 1950s. Mexico City, Mexico, is another. Serious smog condi-tions in the past have caused Mexico City officials to close schools for ex-tended periods because of the high levels of toxic fumes.

Tokyo experienced high rates of growth following World War II, and itsplanned green belt was quickly overrun. The postwar return to a commercialeconomy and the rebuilding of the war-ravaged city were far too compelling toyield to building restrictions in the planned green-belt areas. Planners in Tokyoare now tasked with finding ways to keep the giant metropolitan area operatingefficiently despite its size and crowded conditions.

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Suggested Readings: Gordon O. Ewing, “The Bases of Differences between American andCanadian Cities,” Canadian Geographer, vol. 36 (1992); Brian J. Godfrey, “Restructuring and De-centralization in a World City,” Geographical Review, vol. 85 (1995).

Urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is the unplanned expansion of urban and subur-ban development (structures and activities) onto adjacent rural land. The ex-pansion may be in the form of residential developments, office complexes,business parks, or industrial centers. Regardless of the form of expansion, urbansprawl implies minimal control over growth and the absence of viable urbanplanning.

Urban sprawl occurs in three basic forms: ribbon development, low-densityhousing development, and leapfrog growth. Ribbon development is foundalong new or existing surface-transportation corridors leading away from urbanareas. If the land adjacent to the corridor is available for commercial develop-ment, it may become developed with small businesses, restaurants, gasoline sta-tions, and light industrial firms. Location along a well-traveled corridor is idealfor doing business, and strip developments are found along corridors in nearlyevery world region. The question is, was the growth planned or did it happenhaphazardly? If the latter is true, then the result is urban sprawl.

Another form of urban sprawl is the building of expansive low-density hous-ing developments on previously rural, and possibly agricultural, land. Once ahousing development is in place, service businesses quickly follow. Continuedgrowth of the new development may serve as an impetus for further growth,and the phenomenon of urban sprawl is underway.

Sprawl often occurs as a result of leapfrog development. For example, a man-ufacturing firm may build a new plant on inexpensive rural land a mile from anurban area. The factory is located in a transportation corridor leading into thecity. Ribbon development may soon follow along the corridor, and if the plantcontinues to grow, housing developments may begin to fill the empty area be-tween the plant and the urban center.

Suggested Readings: Mark Goodwin, Reshaping the City, London: Edward Arnold, 1998;James E. Vance, The Continuing City: Urban Morphology in Western Civilization, 2nd ed., Balti-more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.

Urbanization. Urbanization is the general term that refers to city building. Theforms that urbanization may take have varied greatly through time. Urbaniza-tion is the process of a location’s initially becoming urban, with an increasedconcentration of people and functions in cities. Urbanization in the UnitedStates began during the colonial period of the 1700s with a handful of townsand cities located on the eastern seaboard. In time, urbanization marched handin hand with the westward movement as the great interior was inhabited andsettlements were established on the Pacific Coast.

The traditional urban place in the United States included a well-definedcentral business district (CBD), wholesaling and manufacturing districts, a

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range of residential areas, and surface transportation networks to provide con-nectivity within the place.

Following World War II, a radical change took place in the urbanization pro-cess: the growth of suburban developments. Suburbia brought great changes tourban areas. Growth away from the center city and outward to the surroundingrural areas marked this new era. As suburban residential areas increased in pop-ulation size, service providers began to relocate to be closer to their customers.In addition, manufacturing and industrial firms also began to relocate to thesuburbs, where rural land was less expensive and efficient transportation sys-tems ensured accessibility to destinations near and far. As suburbia continuedto grow, greater concentrations of commercial activities found their way there.Edge cities emerged along interstate beltways surrounding the metropolitanarea, providing all of the services found in the CBD.

Suburban growth occurred to a large extent at the expense of the centralcity. Tax base was lost as people moved out of the city to suburbia, and the ear-lier importance of the CBD dissipated. However, in recent decades the processof gentrification, or restoring older homes and apartment buildings in theinner cities, helped to increase the attractiveness of the inner city and drawpeople back. Some metropolitan areas have grown at such high rates thaturban planning efforts have simply not been effective. The result has beenurban sprawl, the virtually unplanned and uncontrolled expansion of the met-ropolitan area into the adjacent rural areas.

Globally, the process of urbanization has steadily increased. In 2000, 45 per-cent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. The developed countrieshave the highest urban resident percentages, averaging about 75 percent. How-ever, growth rates in the developing countries are steadily increasing. TheUnited Nations estimates that by 2025 no major region in the world will haveless than one-half of its population living in urban places. It is also certain thatmetropolitan areas in the developing world will have the highest populationconcentrations in the world. Places like Shanghai, São Paulo, Mexico City,Bombay, Lagos, Karachi, and Calcutta will all have populations exceeding 20million by 2025.

Suggested Readings: David Clark, Urban World/Global City, New York, Routledge, 1996;Alexander Garvin, The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t, New York: McGraw-Hill,1996; Paul L. Knox, Urbanization: An Introduction to Urban Geography, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice Hall, 1994.

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Vernacular cultural regions. Vernacular regions reflect the cultural identi-ties of individuals or groups and are derived from a strong sense of place.These regions derive from the feelings and images about a place, and they arealso called popular or perceptual regions. Because the vernacular region hasan emotional and perceptual origin, it is distinct from the formal and func-tional region, which is widely used in geography and is based on the resultsof objective and possibly statistical analysis. For example, the AmericanSouth is a vernacular region. The association that people in the South holdfor the region is based on their cultural identity and emotional attachment tothe place.

The vernacular region occurs on every scale, from the city neighborhood tolarge parts of a continent. Studies have been conducted on people’s perceptionof the extent of the Midwest. Researchers have attempted to determine the ex-tent of the South by noting the frequency of use of the term Dixie in the classi-fied section of telephone directories. At a different scale, residents of the NorthShore of Lake Superior refer to the area as simply “the shore,” and this reflectstheir personal connection with the place and the pride they have for the re-gion. Lake Superior has a south shore as well, but for North Shore residents,there is really only one shore of consequence.

The Chinese psyche holds that China occupies the Middle Kingdom, a loca-tion of superiority in the world. This perception has existed for centuries, andit may be abating for the first time as China strives to reach out to other regionsin the world and take part in the global economy.

Vernacular regions are about place, and place, as Yi-Fu Tuan (cultural geog-rapher who developed the concept of humanistic geography in the 1970s) con-

tends, have a history. Part of that history include a love of the place (seeTopophilia) and a sense of belonging to the place.

Suggested Readings: George O. Carney, ed., The Sounds of People and Places: Readings in the

Geography of American Folk and Popular Music, 3rd ed., Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield,1994; Wilbur Zelinsky, The Cultural Geography of the United States, 2nd ed., Englewood Cliffs,N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1992.

Vidal de la Blache, Paul (1845–1918). Considered to be the father of Frenchgeography in the modern era (post-1859), Paul Vidal de la Blache was compa-

rable in stature to the British geographer HalfordJ. Mackinder and the American geographer Wil-liam Morris Davis. Throughout his career he ad-vocated the study of human relationships withtheir immediate environmental surrounds (milieu).This particular relationship, human–environmentinteraction, continues to lie at the heart of geo-graphical studies today. Vidal insisted that the sig-nificance of these studies was best approached byanalyzing small “regions” (pays) and noting the as-semblage of distinct physical characteristics (e.g.,soils, water, drainage patterns, surface formations)with human settlement patterns and agriculturalland use.

Vidal invoked the notion of possibilism tocounter the accepted theory of environmental de-terminism as expressed in the first decade of thetwentieth century by geographer Ellsworth Hunt-ington in the United States. Possibilism suggestedthat humans have a wide range of potential actionswithin an environment, and they respond depend-ing on their value systems, attitudes, and behaviorpatterns—in short, their cultural attributes deter-mine their possible responses to the environmentand the limits it imposes. According to Vidal, hu-

mans have choices in how they respond to their environment. The overall out-come of the interaction between humans and their physical surroundingsidentifies their “way of living” (genre de vie).

Not all occupying groups respond in the same way to a similar environment.For example, if an East Asian culture group had occupied the southeasternUnited States during the colonial period, the resulting land-use patterns woulddiffer from those created by the European immigrants.

Vidal was appointed chair of geography at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1898.His book Principles of Human Geography, completed by others following hisdeath in 1918, became a classic in the field. Over the next several decades,

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Paul Vidal de la Blache. Source: Geoffrey Martin.

Vidal’s followers continued the work of this important geographer. The outlineof Vidal’s book contained three major divisions of geographical knowledge: (1)global population distributions; (2) patterns of civilization (including humanrelationships with their milieu); and (3) circulation systems (roads, railroads,and sea-lanes).

Vidal’s thrusts toward integrating human actions within milieu to create agenre de vie is important not only for understanding the key theme ofhuman–environment interaction but in appreciating the clear tie betweenhuman geography and physical geography. There was no conflict betweenthe two as had been seen in other countries; they were viewed as workingtogether. The separation of physical and human geography and the resultingtensions associated with the split has never affected French geography.Physical geography was seen as being both inseparable from and indispens-able to human geography.


Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993; Paul Vidal de la Blache,“Meaning and Aim of Human Geography,” in Human Geography: An Essential Anthology, ed.John Agnew et al., Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1996.

Von Humboldt, Alexander (1769–1859). Along with his contemporary,German geographer Carl Ritter, German geographer Alexander von Hum-boldt is considered one of thefounders of modern geography.He and Ritter were the lastprominent advocates of the age ofuniversal knowledge. Their workin geography and their perspec-tive on science were both excep-tionally broad. For example, whenvon Humboldt conducted fieldinvestigations in northern SouthAmerica, he considered all as-pects of the environment. Hecollected plant specimens andminerals, and he observed andrecorded the activities of the cul-ture groups he encountered. VonHumboldt’s instrument kit in-cluded sextants, timepieces, andother astronomical devices for ob-serving and documenting themovements of celestial bodies andto accurately determine the longi-tude of places he visited.

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Alexander von Humboldt. Source: National Library ofMedicine.

Von Humboldt had a natural curiosity about the physical environment.Early in his career he was greatly influenced by the German traveler and writerGeorg Forster, a naturalist who had accompanied the English captain JamesCook on his voyage around the world (1772–75). Von Humboldt learned fromForster the importance of keen observation and detailed recording of notedphysical features.

Following his journeys through South America and the Caribbean, vonHumboldt wrote a 30-volume series documenting his field studies. During thisexpedition, he collected 60,000 plant specimens, which were shipped back toGermany and laboriously catalogued. Von Humboldt visited the United Statesfor a short time and was welcomed by American statesman Thomas Jefferson;the two became good friends.

In 1829, von Humboldt visited Russia. He traveled by coach from St. Peters-burg to Siberia, as far as the border with China. He convinced the Russian au-thorities to install weather stations from St. Petersburg east to the islands nearAlaska. Data from these weather stations were later used to make the firstworld map of average temperatures. During his Siberian sojourn, he observedand commented on the presence of permafrost (a permanently frozen layer ofearth beneath the surface) in the region.

Von Humboldt also noted and recorded the changes of vegetation with in-creases in altitude, a transition similar to one found in moving from lower tohigher latitudes.

In his last few years, von Humboldt wrote a five-volume work titled Kosmos,considered to be the most important scientific book of its time. These volumesdeal with all aspects of existence, from speculation on the universe and astron-omy to plant communities and physical geography. He considered that humanswere an integral part of the environment and that they could influence andchange their environmental settings.

Unlike Ritter, von Humboldt was not an exponent of teleology, the beliefthat events are preordained. He believed that nature had an internal logic andthat the physical world could be explained through understanding causal con-nections.


Geographical Ideas, 3rd ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993; George Kish, A Sourcebook in

Geography, Cambridge, Mass.: Howard University Press, 1978.

Von Thunen’s land use model. Johann Heinrich von Thunen (1783–1850)was a wealthy landowner in Germany and a scholar of economics as it appliedto agricultural activities. His primary interest was to determine the ideal loca-tion of specific agricultural activities to maximize his profits. Long before thepublication of his most important work, The Isolated State (1826), von Thunenhad worked with an idea that later would become the conceptual basis forChristaller’s central place theory. He imagined a uniform plain within whichall environmental factors (e.g., soil fertility, relief, and climate) were the same


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throughout. In addition, all farmers working the land were assumed to be simi-lar in their aim to maximize profits. Transportation on the plain was by horse-drawn wagon. The isolated state measured40 miles in diameter, and in its center wasthe only urban place. The purpose of theurban place was to accept and market agri-cultural products produced on the plain andto provide all equipment and services neededby the farmers working the land.

Von Thunen then proposed that specificagricultural land uses would organize aroundthe single urban place in a logical manner.That is, activities that were essential in serv-ing the daily needs of the urban residents(e.g., dairy products and other perishables)or derive the highest value of product perunit area of land would locate closest to theurban place. These activities would be ableto pay the higher land cost closer to the cen-ter. Because of the uniformity of the plain, allactivity zones outward from the center wouldbe arranged in concentric rings. Movingaway from the center, the activities generallychanged from intensive agriculture to ex-tensive agriculture. The activity in the far-thest zone outward from the center wasgrazing, the most extensive land use. Grazingalso had the lowest monetary return of all the land uses on the plain. As such,it occupied the concentric zone with the lowest “land rent” (von Thunen’sterm).

The single variable in the model was transportation cost, a direct function ofdistance from the center. The basic concentric zone model allowed vonThunen to determine which agricultural activities would be ideally placed ineach of the concentric zones. Realizing that real-world agricultural regions arenot isolated and do not have the degree of uniformity he included in themodel, von Thunen introduced two modifications. First, he placed a smallerurban place onto the plain and concluded that the new center would developits own set of land use zones. The second modification was the introduction ofa river that ran from the urban place at the center of the plain to the edge ofthe isolated state. The river provided a transportation corridor of far superiorspeed to that of the horse and wagon.

The concentric zones present in the original model were radically changedbecause activities with accessibility to the river could take place farther away


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Johann Heinrich von Thunen. Source: The Warren J.Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.

from the center and still provide the center with its goods in essentially thesame amount of time. Von Thunen’s work was not used extensively in theUnited States until the mid-twentieth century. Since that time, his ideas havebeen widely accepted within the mainstream of geographical thinking.

Suggested Readings: Michael Chisholm, Rural Settlement and Land Use, London: Hutchins,1962; Hildegard Binder Johnson, “A Note on von Thunen’s Circles,” Annals of the Association of

American Geographers, vol. 52 (1962).


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Wallerstein’s world-system analysis. The prominent American social scientistImmanuel Wallerstein theorized in the 1960s and 1970s that the world is a sin-gle economic entity. He further stated that the world economic system operatesin a capitalistic mode of production. In the capitalist world economy, asWallerstein called it, meaningful change comes only through alterations in theworld system and not by addressing the problems of a single country. In this re-gard, Wallerstein disagreed with twentieth-century American economic histo-rian Walter W. Rostow and his stage theory of economic development.

The capitalist world economy, Wallerstein contended, has three basic fea-tures: (1) a single integrated world market that operates in a capitalistic modeof ceaseless capital accumulation; (2) a multiple-state system in which no sin-gle country can dominate the entire system; and (3) a capitalist world systemwith three regional components—the core, the periphery, and the semipe-riphery. The core consists of the affluent and urban-industrialized developedcountries. The economic system in each of these countries continues to besuccessful in the accumulation of capital. These countries are the generatorsof the capitalist world economy.

The periphery is composed of countries in the developing world. Most ofthese countries were under the control of a core country during the era of colo-nialism from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the 1960s, and inmany cases their economic system is little changed (see Neocolonialism). Al-though the developing countries have seen improvements in their socioeco-nomic situation, the gap between the core and the periphery continues towiden. Wallerstein pointed out that in the capitalist world economy there mustbe both a core and a periphery, and any gain made in the periphery will be

matched and usually surpassed in the core. For example, transnational corpo-rations (TNCs) operate in many developing countries. These plants providejobs and other economic advantages to the host country, but the major gain inprofits from the operation remains with the TNC, whose headquarters is in acountry in the developed world. Inequity in regional economic development isa basic tenet of the capitalist world economy.

Wallerstein included the semiperiphery as a third region in the world system.Within this region, a dynamic struggle is underway as countries attempt tomove from the periphery into the core. Over time, the individual countries ineach of the three regions may change positions. Also, over extended cycles, thecore may experience periods of dynamic growth and paralyzing stagnation.

Suggested Readings: R. J. Johnston et al., eds., The Dictionary of Human Geography, 2nd ed.,Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1986; Immanuel Wallerstein, The Capitalist World-Economy,

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Weber’s least cost theory. Alfred Weber (1868–1958), a German locationeconomist, was a pioneer in the field of industrial location. He received his

doctorate at the University of Berlin in 1897. Tenyears later, he became chairman of the Social Sci-ences and Political Economy department at Heidel-berg University, a position he held throughout hisillustrious career. Weber’s 1909 book, Theory of theLocation of Industry, is a classic in the field, and hiswork has been referred to and expounded on sinceits publication. Weber greatly influenced Sovieteconomic geographers in the 1930s as they workedon full regional economic development and the es-tablishment of territorial production complexes. Healso influenced German economic geographer Wal-ter Christaller in his work on Christaller’s centralplace theory. In the 1950s and 1960s, Weber’s ideasbecame part of the Quantitative Revolution inAmerican geography.

Weber’s primary research motive was to find waysto reduce production costs in industrial operations.He focused on the development of three least-costtheories addressing transportation, labor, and ag-glomeration. His approach to the problem used amodel similar to the one used by German economistJohann Heinrich von Thunen in his studies of agri-

cultural systems in the 1800s. Weber assumed the following: (1) a uniformcountry with equal transportation rates throughout; (2) known locations foracquiring raw materials, with equal transportation rates from any one of themto the point of production; (3) known points of consumption; (4) a fixed labor


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Alfred Weber. Source: Library of Congress.

supply in known locations, with no wage differentials; and (5) production coststhat would not vary at any manufacturing point. Weber constructed a flat tablecomplete with weights, pulleys, and lines tomechanically determine the ideal locationfor a manufacturing plant. Each raw mate-rial required in the manufacturing processand the location of the market wasweighted to reflect its influence on the lo-cation process. The equilibrium point re-sulting from the pull of all the variablesdetermined the ideal plant location.

One factor in weighting the raw materi-als was whether or not each was a “weight-gaining” or a “weight-losing” material. Forexample, copper ore contains up to 98 per-cent impurities. Therefore, initial process-ing must take place at or near the mine site.It would not be economically sound to shipthe ore without first removing the impuri-ties. Copper represents a weight-losingproduct. Beverage bottling, on the otherhand, is a weight-gaining product. Bottlingplants are located near the market becauseof the weight added in the process.

This particular approach was based pri-marily on determining the location withthe least transportation costs. Weber wasalso concerned about the affects of agglom-eration on overall costs. Agglomeration, the clustering of industrial plants formutual advantage, has obvious positive advantages. However, if agglomerationbecomes too great in any one location, negative outcomes such as rising laborcosts and land rents and overcrowding can occur.

Suggested Readings: Dean M. Hanink, Principles and Applications of Economic Geography, NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, 1997; Alfred Weber, Theory of the Location of Industries, trans. Carl J.Freidrich, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929; reissued, New York: Russell & Russell,1971.

Weight-gaining/weight-losing products. See Weber’s least cost theory.

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A plane table using weights to show the point of least trans-port cost where there are several sources of raw materials.Source: Jerome D. Fellmann, Arthur Getis, and JudithGetis, Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities,

updated 6th ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001. Reproducedby permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

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Zero population growth. The achievement of zero population growth (ZPG)has been a goal of demographers and economic development experts for de-cades. Steadily increasing population, both globally and in a number of majorregions, has in many ways outstripped the earth’s capacity to adequately sup-port the burgeoning numbers. Although there has been a slight decline in theglobal rate of natural increase (RNI) in recent decades, total population is stillincreasing by 80–90 million people each year. Most of the increase is occurringin the developing world, a region that can ill afford to support more people.

ZPG is seen to be the long-term goal for alleviating the pressure of higherpopulation totals. For ZPG to become a reality, the total fertility rate (TFR),or replacement rate, must reach and be maintained at 2.1 or lower. This num-ber represents the average number of children born to a woman during herchildbearing years, ages 15–45. The average TFR for the developed world in2000 was 1.6. Most of the countries in the world, however, have much higherTFRs. For instance, in 2000, world TFR was 2.9, and the TFR for the develop-ing world, excluding China, was 3.8.

A regional TFR of 3.8 indicates that the countries in the region have notcompleted the demographic transition and will continue to experience popu-lation increase. The problem of continued growth is understood when it isnoted that large percentages of the population in developing countries arefound in the youngest age group (0–4). As long as this age group remains highin numbers, there is a guarantee that population increase will continue.

United Nations population projections suggest that ZPG will be in place inall major regions within the twenty-first century. ZPG is expected to beachieved in Europe by 2020, in North America (Canada and the United

States) by 2030, China by 2070, Southeast Asia and Latin America by 2090,and Africa by 2100.

Suggested Readings: Anne Boyd et al., The World’s Youth: 2000, Washington, D.C.: Popula-tion Reference Bureau, 2001; Wolfgang Lutz et al., eds., “Frontiers of Population Forecasting,”Population and Development Review, vol. 24 (1998).


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Selected Bibliography

GENERAL REFERENCES

Bergman, Edward F. Human Geography: Cultures, Connections, and Landscapes. Engle-wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995.

de Blij, H. J., and Alexander B. Murphy. Human Geography: Culture, Society, and

Space. 6th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.Earle, Carville, Kent Mathewson, and Martin S. Kenzer, eds. Concepts in Human Geog-

raphy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996.Fellmann, Jerome D., Arthur Getis, and Judith Getis. Human Geography: Landscapes of

Human Activities. Updated 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001.Johnston, R. J., ed. The Dictionary of Human Geography, 2nd ed., Oxford: Basil Black-

well Ltd., 1986.Kish, George, ed. A Source Book in Geography. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University

Press, 1978.Knox, P., and S. Marston. Human Geography: Places and Regions in a Global Context.

Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998.Martin, Geoffrey J., and Preston E. James. All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical

Ideas. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.Nelson, Ronald E., Robert E. Gabler, and James W. Vining. Human Geography: People,

Cultures, and Landscapes. Fort Worth, Tx.: Saunders, Harcourt Brace CollegePublishers, 1995.

Norton, William. Human Geography. 3rd ed. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1998.Pattison, William D. “The Four Traditions of Geography.” Journal of Geography, vol. 63

(1964): 211–16.Rubenstein, James M. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography.

Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.Shelley, Fred M., and Audrey E. Clarke. Human and Cultural Geography: A Global Per-

spective. Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown, 1994.

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

Anderson, K., and F. Gale. Cultural Geographies. Melbourne: Longman, 1999.Boal, Frederick W., and Stephen A. Royle. North America: A Geographical Mosaic. Lon-

don: Arnold, 1999.

Foote, K., et al., eds. Rereading Cultural Geography. Austin: University of Texas Press,1994.

Jackson, W. A. Douglas, The Shaping of Our World: A Human and Cultural Geography.

New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1985.Jordan-Bychkov, Terry G., and Mona Domosh. The Human Mosaic: A Thematic Intro-

duction to Cultural Geography. 8th ed. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1999.Mitchell, D. Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell,

2000.Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 1977.Zelinsky, Wilbur. The Cultural Geography of the United States. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:

Prentice Hall, 1992.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Black, Jan Knippers. Development in Theory and Practice: Paradigms and Paradoxes. 2nded. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999.

Dickerson, John. Geography of the Third World. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge,1996.

Griffith, Keith. Studies in Development Strategy and Systematic Transformation. NewYork: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

Meier, Gerald M., and James E. Rauch. Leading Issues in Economic Development. 7th ed.New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Morris, Arthur. Geography and Development. London: University College LondonPress, 1998.

Ros, Jaime. Development Theory and the Economics of Growth. Ann Arbor: University ofMichigan Press, 2000.

Simpson, Edward S. The Developing World: An Introduction. 2nd ed. New York: Long-man, 1994.

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

Berry, Brian J. L., Edgar G. Conkling, and Michael Ray. The Global Economy in Transi-

tion. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997.Bryson, John, et al. The Economic Geography Reader: Producing and Consuming Global

Capitalism. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.Dicken, Peter. Global Shift: Transforming the World Economy. 3rd ed. New York: Guil-

ford Press, 1998.Grigg, David. An Introduction to Agricultural Geography. New York: Routledge,

1995.Hanink, Dean M. Principles and Applications of Economic Geography: Economy, Policy,

Environment. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.Harrington, J. W., and Barney Warf. Industrial Location. New York: Routledge, 1995.Lee, Roger, and Jane Wills. Geographies of Economies. New York: Arnold, 1997.Mills, John. Managing the World Economy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.Wheeler, James O., et al. Economic Geography. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons,

1998.


284

MAPS AND CARTOGRAPHY

Campbell, John. Map Use and Analysis. 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: WCB/McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Dent, Borden C. Cartography: Thematic Map Design. 4th ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C.Brown Publishers, 1996.

MacEachran, Alan M. How Maps Work. New York: Guilford Press, 1995.Monmonier, Mark. Drawing the Line: Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy. New York:

Henry Holt, 1995.Muehrcke, Phillip C., and Julianna O. Muehrcke. Map Use: Reading, Analysis, Inter-

pretation. Madison, Wis.: JP Publications, 1992.Robinson, Arthur H., et al. Elements of Cartography. 6th ed. New York: John Wiley &

Sons, 1995.Thrower, Norman J. W. Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.Tyner, Judith. Introduction to Thematic Cartography. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice

Hall, 1992.Wood, Dennis. The Power of Maps. New York: Guilford Press, 1992.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

Agnew, John A., ed. Political Geography: A Reader. London: Arnold, 1997.Demko, George J., and William B. Woods. Reordering the World: Geopolitical Perspec-

tives on the Twenty-first Century. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1994.Glassner, Martin I. Political Geography. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.Hooson, David, ed. Geography and National Identity. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell,

1994.Kliot, Nurit, and Stanley Waterman. The Political Geography of Conflict and Peace. Lon-

don: Belhaven Press, 1991.Muir, Richard. Political Geography: A New Introduction. New York: John Wiley & Sons,

1997.Poulsen, Thomas M. Nations and States: A Geographical Background to World Affairs.

Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995.Short, John R. An Introduction to Political Geography. London: Routledge, 1994.Slowe, Peter M. Geography and Political Power: The Geography of Nations and States.

London: Routledge, 1990.Taylor, Peter J. Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality. 3rd ed.

New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.Taylor, Peter J., ed. Political Geography of the Twentieth Century: A Global Analysis. New

York: Halstead Press, 1993.

POPULATION GEOGRAPHY

Castles, Stephen, and Mark J. Miller. The Age of Migration: International Population

Movements in the Modern World. New York: Guilford Press, 1998.Cohen, Joel E. How Many People Can the Earth Support? New York: Norton, 1995.Ehrlich, Paul, and Anne Ehrlich. The Population Explosion. New York: Simon & Schus-

ter, 1990.


285

Daugherty, Helen Ginn, and Kenneth C. W. Kammeyer. An Introduction to Population.

2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press, 1995.Hornby, William F., and Melvyn Jones. An Introduction to Population Geography. Cam-

bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.Jones, Huw. Population Geography. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press, 1990.Keyfitz, Nathan, and William Flinger. World Population Growth and Aging: Demographic

Trends in the Late 20th Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.Parnell, Mike. Population Movements and the Third World. New York: Routledge, 1993.Peters, Gary L., and Robert P. Larkin. Population Geography: Problems, Concepts, and

Prospects. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1993.Plane, David A., and Peter A, Rogerson. The Geographical Analysis of Population. New

York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.Robert, Godfrey. Population Policy, Contemporary Issues. New York: Praeger, 1990.Robinson, Vaughn, ed. Geography and Migration. London: Edward Elgar, 1996.

REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY

Aryeety-Attoh, Samuel, ed. Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa. Upper Saddle River,N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1997.

Blouet, Brian W., and Olwyn M. Blouet. Latin America and the Caribbean: A Systematic

and Regional Survey. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.Bradshaw, Michael. World Regional Geography: The New Global Order. Updated 2nd ed.

New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.Clawson, David L., ed. World Regional Geography: A Developmental Approach. 7th ed.

Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001.Getis, Arthur, and Judith Getis, eds. The United States and Canada. Dubuque, Iowa:

Wm. C. Brown, 1995.Heffernan, Michael. The Meaning of Europe: Geography and Geopolitics. New York: Ox-

ford University Press, 1998.Leeming, F. The Changing Geography of China. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1993.McLoud, D. G. Southeast Asia: Tradition and Modernity in the Contemporary World.

Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1995.Pulsipher, Lydia Mihelic, and Alex A. Pulsipher. World Regional Geography: Global Pat-

terns, Local Lives. 2nd ed. New York: W. H. Freeman, 2002.Rigg, Jonathan. Southeast Asia: The Human Landscape of Modernization and Develop-

ment. New York: Routledge, 1997.Shaw, Dennis J. B. Russia in the Modern World: A New Geography. Malden, Mass.:

Blackwell, 1999.Stock, R. Africa South of the Sahara: A Geographical Interpretation. New York: Guilford

Press, 1995.Unwin, Tim, ed. A European Geography. Harlow, U.K.: Addison Wesley Longman,

1998.Weightman, Barbara. Geography of Asia: Of Dragons and Tigers. New York: John Wiley

& Sons, 2000.

URBAN GEOGRAPHY

Brunn, Stanley D., and Jack F. Williams. Cities of the World: World Regional Urban De-

velopment. 2nd ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.


286

Carter, Harold. The Study of Urban Geography. 4th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons,1996.

Ford, Larry R. Cities and Buildings: Skyscrapers, Skid Rows, and Suburbs. Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Garreau, Joel. Edge Cities: Life on the New Frontier. New York: Doubleday, 1991.Garvin, Alexander. The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t. New York: McGraw-

Hill, 1996.Gilbert, Alan, and Josef Gugler. Cities, Poverty, and Development: Urbanization in the

Third World. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Herbert, David T., and Colin J. Thomas. Cities in Space: Cities as Place. New York: John

Wiley & Sons, 1997.Knox, Paul L. Urbanization: An Introduction to Urban Geography. Englewood Cliffs,

N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1994.Knox, Paul L., ed. The Restless Urban Landscape. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall,

1993.Vance, James E. The Continuing City: Urban Morphology in Western Civilization. 2nd ed.

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.Wilson, David, ed. Globalization and the Changing U.S. City. Thousand Oaks, Calif.:

Sage, 1997.Yeates, Maurice. The North American City. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 1997.


287

289

Index

Abuja, Nigeria, 81Absolute location, 1Absorbing barrier, 57Ackerman, Edward A., 165Accessibility, 2Acculturation, 3Acid rain, 4Afghanistan, 44Africa, 15, 19African Americans, 71Age and sex ratios, 6Agglomeration, 6Agribusiness, 7Agricultural Revolution, 8Agriculture, 185Albedo, 265Almagest, 195Anthropogeographie, 104Apartheid, 9Aquaculture, 10Arctic Ocean, 63Aristotle, 10Arithmetic density, 12Asian Tigers, 12Assembly line operation, 80Assimilation, 13Association of American Geographer,

247, 265Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(ASEAN), 242

Balkanization, 15Barrows, Harlan, 42

Basic and nonbasic industries, 16Behavioral geography, 17Berlin Wall, 197, 211Bid-rent curve, 17Biotechnology, 18Blockbusting and redlining, 18Boswash, 135Boundary, 19Brant Report, 163Brasilia, 81Burgess, Ernest W., 36Buttimer, Anne, 255

Carbon dioxide, 94Carbon sink, 94Carrying capacity, 23Cartogram, 24Cartography, 25Census, 26Central business district, 27Centrifugal/centripetal forces, 28Chipitts, 136Chloroflourocarbons, 93, 180Chorography, 207Choropleth map, 29Christaller, Walter, 57, 100Christaller’s Central Place Theory, 29City-state, 31The Club of Rome, 244Cold war, 31Colonialism, 33Columbus, Christopher, 70, 196Commercial Revolution, 34

Community Reinvestment Act, 19Comparative advantage, 35Complementarity, 117Computer mapping, 26Concentric zone model, 36Connectivity, 37Conservation, 37Consultative Group on International

Agricultural Research, 93Containment, 32Continental shelf, 134Contour line, 253Conurbation, 37Core-periphery model, 38Counterurbanization, 39Crude birthrate, 39Crude death rate, 40Cultural convergence, 41Cultural diffusion, 42Cultural ecology, 42Cultural geography, 43Cultural integration, 43Cultural landscape, 44Culture hearth, 45

Darwin, Charles, 47Davis, William Morris, 48Death of Distance, 252Deforestation, 49Deindustrialization, 50Democratic Ideals and Reality, 179Demographic transition, 51Density gradient, 52Dependency ratio, 53Dependency theory, 54Desertification, 55Development gap, 42Devolution, 55Die Erdkunde, 215Diffusion, 56Diffusion barrier, 56Distance decay, 57Doctors Without Borders, 160Double-cropping, 57Doubling time, 58Drip irrigation, 220

Economic development, 61Economic geography, 62

Economic man, 17Economics of association, 115Ecosystem, 62Ecumene, 63Edge city, 64Electoral geography, 65Enclave and exclave, 66The Enlightenment, 191Entrepot, 67Environmental awareness, 67Environmental determinism, 68Environmental perception, 69Environmental Protection Agency, 67Eratosthenes, 69Erosion, 49Ethnicity, 70European Union, 71Evolution, 47Exclave. See Enclave and exclave, 66Exclusive economic zone, 72Expansion diffusion, 73Extensive agriculture, 74

Fall line, 77Feedlot, 78Female infanticide, 84Folk and popular culture, 78Footloose industry, 79Ford, Henry, 80Fordist, 80Formal (uniform) region. See RegionForm utility, 223Forster, George, 274Forward thrust capital city, 81Friction of distance, 82. See also Distance

decayFrontier, 82

Garreau, Joel, 64Gender, 83General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade,

84General Systems Theory: Foundations, De-

velopment, Applications, 244Gentrification, 85Geographica, 237Geographic information systems, 86Geography, 87Geopolitics, 89

Index

290

Gerry, Eldridge, 66Gerrymandering, 90Global Energy and Water Cycle Experi-

ment, 108Globalization, 90Global warming, 90Gottmann, Jean, 37, 91. See also Mega-

lopolisGravity model, 91Greenbelt, 92Greenhouse effect, 93Green Revolution, 92Gross national product/Gross domestic

product, 94Growth pole, 96Guyot, Arnold, 248

Hagerstrand, Torsten, 97Harrison, John, 35Heartland theory, 98, 130Herodotus, 98Hierarchical diffusion, 73, 99Highly developed country, 99High-tech corridors, 99Hinterland, 100Historical geography, 100HIV/AIDS, 101Hong Kong, 12, 31Hoyt, Homer, 224Hub system, 156Human Development Index, 103Human-environment interaction, 43,

104Human geography, 104Humanistic geography, 106Human Poverty Index, 105Hunting and gathering, 24, 107Huntington, Ellsworth, 68Hydrologic cycle, 108

Imperialism, 111. See also ColonialismIndustrial inertia, 111Industrial Revolution, 112Infant mortality rate, 113Informal sector, 114Infrastructure, 115Intensive agriculture, 116Intercropping, 116Intervening opportunity, 117

Irredentism, 118Isarithmic map, 119

Japan, 21, 44, 79Jarmo, 142Jefferson, Mark, 193

Kant, Immanuel, 69Kish, George, 87Kosmos, 274Kurds, 41, 146Kyoto Protocol, 121

Lake Baikal, 181Landlocked country, 123Landscape, 43Language family, 124Lesser-developed country. See Core-pe-

riphery modelLingua franca, 125Livestock ranching, 74, 78Loess, 125Long lot system, 126Lopez, Barry, 177

Mackinder, Halford J., 129Magnus, Albertus, 12Malthus, Thomas Robert, 130Manganese nodules, 123Mao Tse Tung, 12Maquiladoras, 132Market gardening, 132Marshall Plan, 32Marx, Karl, 168Mass production, 112Median-line principle, 134Megalopolis, 135Meiji Restoration, 171Mental map, 137Mercantilism, 138Mercator projection, 25Metes and bounds system, 139Metropolitan statistical area, 140Microclimates, 14Mischief Reef, 210Monsoon, 144Multinational corporation. See Transna-

tional corporation

Index

291

Multinational state, 145Multiple-nuclei model, 147Multiplier effect, 148Myrdal, Gunnar, 96, 148

Nagorno-Karabakh, 66Nation-state, 151NATO-Moscow Council, 163Natural boundary, 152Natural hazards, 153Nearest-neighbor analysis, 174Neocolonialism, 155Neolithic period, 45Nepal, 21Network, 156New industrial countries, 157New international division of labor, 158New Mexico, 71Newton, Sir Isaac, 91New York City, 45Niger, 103Nodal (functional) region. See RegionNomadic herding, 159Nongovernmental organizations, 160North American Free Trade Agreement,

161North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 162North-South. See also Core-periphery

model

Ogallala Aquifer, 109On-time distribution system, 112Optimum population, 165Organization of Petroleum Exporting

Countries, 166Outsourcing, 167Overpopulation, 168

Pacific Rim economic region, 171Paddy rice farming, 172Pakistan, 81Paleolithic period, 107Pastoralism, 173Pattern, 174Pattison, William J., 88Periodic market, 175Perroux, Francois, 96Personal space. See Territoriality

Physical geography, 49, 89, 104, 273Physiological density, 175Place, 176Placelessness, 177Plantation agriculture, 177Political geography, 178Pollution, 179Population density, 181Population distribution, 182Population explosion, 183Population geography, 184Population growth, 185Population projection, 186Population pyramid, 187Possibilism, 189Postindustrial economy, 190Postmodernism, 191Pred, Allen, 5Primary sector, 192Primate city, 192Principles of Human Geography, 105, 221,

272Projection, 194Ptolemy, 195Purchasing power parity, 196Push and pull factors, 197

Quantitative Revolution, 199Quaternary sector, 200Quebec, 55Quinary sector, 201

Range. See Christaller’s central placetheory

Rank-size rule, 203Rate of natural increase, 204Ratzel, Friedrich, 205Refugees, 206Region, 207Regional geography, 209Relative location, 210Relict boundary, 211Relocation diffusion, 211Renewable resource, 212Representative fraction, 222Resource, 213Rimland theory. See Mackinder, Halford

J.

Index

292

Ritter, Carl, 214Roosevelt, Theodore, 67Rostow, Walter W., 215

Sack, Robert, 250Sahel, 219Salinization, 220San Jose, 16Sansan, 136Saudi Arabia, 82Sauer, Carl, 221Scale, 222Secondary sector, 223Second world, 32Sector model, 224Sense of place, 225Settlement, 226Shatter belt, 227Shifting cultivation. See Extensive agri-

cultureSidewalk farmer, 240Singapore, 12, 31Single Europe Act, 72Site, 228Situation, 229Slash and burn agriculture. See Extensive

agricultureSmog, 230Social geography, 231Soil, 232Soil erosion, 233Soja, Edward, 191South Africa, 9, 121South China Sea, 134, 264South Korea, 12Soviet Union, 22, 28Space, 234Spain, 33Spanglish, 44Spatial interaction, 235Sprawl, See Urban sprawlSquatter settlement, 236The Stages of Economic Growth, 215Statistical surface, 119Strabo, 237Sub-Saharan Africa, 105Subsistence agriculture, 238Suburbia, 239

Suitcase farmer, 240Sunbelt, 197Superimposed boundary, 240Supranationalism, 241Sustainable development, 242Systematic (thematic) geography, 243Systems theory, 244

Taiwan, 12, 21Techno-pole, 99Telecommuting, 247Teleology, 248Terracing, 249Terra Incognita, 195The Territorial Imperative, 250Territoriality, 250Tertiary sector, 251Theory of the Location of Industry,

278Third World, 32Three-Gorges Project, 229Threshold. See Christaller’s central place

theoryTime geography, 98Time-space convergence, 252Topographic map, 252Topography, 207Toponym, 253Topophilia, 255Topophobia, 256Total fertility rate, 256Town and Country Planning Act, 92Township and range system, 257Transferability, 118Transhumance, 259Transnational corporation, 259Transportation systems 260Trans-Siberian Railroad, 226Treaty of Tordesillas, 33Truck farming. See Market gardeningTruman Doctrine, 31Truman Proclamation, 73Tuan Yi-Fu, 88, 106, 177

Ubiquitous industries, 80Ullman, Edward, 117, 147United Nations Commission on Sustain-

able Development, 242

Index

293

United Nations Conference on Desertifi-cation, 219

United Nations Convention on the Lawof the Sea, 263

United Nations Development Pro-gramme, 103, 105

United Nations Environmental Pro-gramme, 94

United Nations Framework Conferenceon Climatic Change, 121

Universalizing/ethnic religions, 264Urban geography, 265Urban heat island, 265Urbanization, 268Urban landscapes, 266Urban planning, 267Urban sprawl, 268

Vernacular culture regions, 271Vidal de la Blache, Paul, 272

Von Humboldt, Alexander, 273Von Thunen, Johann Heinrich, 52, 57,

100, 174Von Thunen’s land use model, 274Voting patterns, 65

Wallerstein’s world-system analysis,277

Warsaw Pact, 162Watt, James, 112Weber’s least cost theory, 278Weight-gaining/weight-losing products.

See Weber’s least cost theoryWhitney, Eli, 178World Bank, 114World Trade Organization, 85

Yugoslavia, 15, 56

Zero population growth, 281

Index

294

About the Author

GERALD R. PITZL is Professor Emeritus of Geography, Macalester College, St.Paul, Minnesota. He now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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